---
title: Fionn would run his best to get away from that prickly stinger, but… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Fionn would run his best to get away from that prickly stinger, but how he would run when it was his turn to deal the strokes! Who acts: Fionn, stinger. 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/pg2892/17/4/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 4

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Fionn would run his best to get away from that prickly stinger, but how he would run when it was his turn to deal the strokes!

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**Who acts:** Fionn, stinger · **What happens:** run, get away, be, deal · **To what, where:** best, turn, strokes

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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, stinger), 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:pg2892:17:4
# text = Fionn would run his best to get away from that prickly stinger, but how he would run when it was his turn to deal the strokes!
1	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
8	away	away	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
11	prickly	prickly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	stinger	stinger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	turn	turn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	parataxis	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	deal	deal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	strokes	stroke	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | would | Fionn | Fionn's best |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme good=Trajectory |
| 2 | **get away** | to-infinitive | Fionn *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn withdraw-82-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **run** | would | Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | stinger | Fionn's turn |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **deal** | to-infinitive | Fionn *not said here* | the strokes |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stroke=Theme |

<!-- .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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