---
title: He would have known a thousand tricks, and because our instinct is t… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He would have known a thousand tricks, and because our instinct is to teach, and because no man can keep a trick from a boy, he would show them to Fionn. Who acts: instinct, man. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/20/10/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Irish Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/) / [Chapter VII](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/20/) / 10

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He would have known a thousand tricks, and because our instinct is to teach, and because no man can keep a trick from a boy, he would show them to Fionn.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** instinct, man · **What happens:** know, be, keep, show · **To what, where:** man, trick, tricks, Fionn

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (instinct, man), 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:pg2892:20:10
# text = He would have known a thousand tricks, and because our instinct is to teach, and because no man can keep a trick from a boy, he would show them to Fionn.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	tricks	trick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
10	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
11	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	instinct	instinct	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	teach	teach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	trick	trick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | would · perfect · passive |  | man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | our instinct |  |  |  |  | teach *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **keep** | can | no man | a trick |  |  |  | from a boy | vn forbid-64.4 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer trick=Beneficiary from boy=Eventuality |
| 4 | **show** | would | man | tricks *= trick* | Fionn |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Topic to fionn=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/20/9/)
- next →: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/20/11/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VII](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/20/)