---
title: He used to try to chase a fish the way he chased hares in the bumpy… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He used to try to chase a fish the way he chased hares in the bumpy field--but there are terrible spurts in a fish. Who acts: Fionn, terrible spurts. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 24

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He used to try to chase a fish the way he chased hares in the bumpy field--but there are terrible spurts in a fish.

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**Who acts:** Fionn, terrible spurts · **What happens:** use, try, chase, be · **To what, where:** fish, hares, bumpy field

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fionn, terrible spurts), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2892:17:24
# text = He used to try to chase a fish the way he chased hares in the bumpy field--but there are terrible spurts in a fish.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	chase	chase	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	chased	chase	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
13	hares	hare	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	bumpy	bumpy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	21	expl	_	_
21	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	spurts	spurt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | past | Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **try** | to-infinitive | Fionn *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **chase** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Fionn *not said here* | a fish |  |  |  | the way *obl:unmarked* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Theme |
| 4 | **chase** | past | Fionn | hares |  | the bumpy field |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent hare=Theme in field=Trajectory |
| 5 | **does** | present | terrible spurts |  |  | there |  | in a fish | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in fish=Location |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Project Gutenberg book 2892 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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