---
title: They must have been young, for one time a Leinsterman came on them,… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They must have been young, for one time a Leinsterman came on them, a great robber named Fiacuil mac Cona, and he killed the poets. Who acts: tales, Leinsterman. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VI, sentence 11

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They must have been young, for one time a Leinsterman came on them, a great robber named Fiacuil mac Cona, and he killed the poets.

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**Who acts:** tales, Leinsterman · **What happens:** be, come, name, kill · **To what, where:** great robber, poets

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tales, Leinsterman), 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:pg2892:19:11
# text = They must have been young, for one time a Leinsterman came on them, a great robber named Fiacuil mac Cona, and he killed the poets.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	cop	_	_
5	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Leinsterman	Leinsterman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	robber	robber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
19	named	name	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	Fiacuil	Fiacuil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	mac	Mac	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	xcomp	_	_
22	Cona	Cona	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	poets	poet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | must · perfect | tales *= tale* |  |  |  |  | young *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | a Leinsterman | a great robber |  |  | time | on tales *= tale* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on they=Location |
| 3 | **name** | participle |  | a great robber *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **kill** | past | Leinsterman | the poets |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poet=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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