---
title: He is over you when he ought to be under you, and he is biting your… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He is over you when he ought to be under you, and he is biting your toe when you thought you were biting his tail. Who acts: Fionn, you. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/17/29/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 29

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He is over you when he ought to be under you, and he is biting your toe when you thought you were biting his tail.

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**Who acts:** Fionn, you · **What happens:** be, bite, think · **To what, where:** toe, tail · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, you), 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:pg2892:17:29
# text = He is over you when he ought to be under you, and he is biting your toe when you thought you were biting his tail.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	over	over	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	0	root	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
10	under	under	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	biting	bite	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
17	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	toe	toe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	biting	bite	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	ccomp	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Fionn |  |  |  |  | over you | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | Fionn *not said here* |  |  |  |  | under you | tree rules |
| 3 | **bite** | present · progressive | Fionn | your toe |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent toe=Patient |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **bite** | past · progressive | you | Fionn's tail |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |

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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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