---
title: ONE day his guardians were agitated: they held confabulations at whi… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: ONE day his guardians were agitated: they held confabulations at which Fionn was not permitted to assist. Who acts: guardians. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 1

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ONE day his guardians were agitated: they held confabulations at which Fionn was not permitted to assist.

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**Who acts:** guardians · **What happens:** agitate, hold, not permit, assist · **To what, where:** guardians, confabulations, Fionn

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (guardians), 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:pg2892:18:1
# text = ONE day his guardians were agitated: they held confabulations at which Fionn was not permitted to assist.
1	ONE	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	guardians	guardian	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	agitated	agitate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
10	confabulations	confabulation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obl	_	_
13	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	permitted	permit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl:relcl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	assist	assist	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **agitate** | past · passive |  | his guardians |  |  | day |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **hold** | past | guardians *= guardian* | confabulations |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent confabulation=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **permit** | past · passive |  | Fionn |  | confabulations |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **assist** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |

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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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