---
title: They pursued him with a savagery which he could not distinguish from… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They pursued him with a savagery which he could not distinguish from hatred, and they swished him well whenever they got the chance. Who acts: nurses, Fionn. 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 6

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They pursued him with a savagery which he could not distinguish from hatred, and they swished him well whenever they got the chance.

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**Who acts:** nurses, Fionn · **What happens:** pursue, not distinguish, swish, get · **To what, where:** Fionn, savagery, chance

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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 (nurses, Fionn), 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:pg2892:17:6
# text = They pursued him with a savagery which he could not distinguish from hatred, and they swished him well whenever they got the chance.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	savagery	savagery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl:relcl	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	hatred	hatred	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	swished	swish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
20	whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	22	advmod	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pursue** | past | nurses *= nurse* | Fionn |  |  |  | with a savagery | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **distinguish** | could | Fionn | a savagery |  |  |  | from hatred | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent which=Theme from hatred=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **swish** | past | nurses *= nurse* | Fionn |  |  |  | well *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location he=Theme |
| 4 | **get** | past | nurses *= nurse* | the chance |  |  |  | whenever *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer chance=Stimulus |

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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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