---
title: He will rove unless you tie him to a post, and he will whistle then. — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He will rove unless you tie him to a post, and he will whistle then. Who acts: boy, you. 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 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He will rove unless you tie him to a post, and he will whistle then.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boy, you · **What happens:** rove, tie, whistle · **To what, where:** boy

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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 (boy, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2892:18:41
# text = He will rove unless you tie him to a post, and he will whistle then.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	rove	rove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	tie	tie	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	post	post	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	whistle	whistle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rove** | future | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tie** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | boy |  |  |  | to a post | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent he=Patient to post=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **whistle** | future | boy |  |  |  | then |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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