---
title: If the robber was a solitary he would, for lack of someone else, hav… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: If the robber was a solitary he would, for lack of someone else, have talked greatly to Fionn. Who acts: robber. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII, sentence 3

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If the robber was a solitary he would, for lack of someone else, have talked greatly to Fionn.

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**Who acts:** robber · **What happens:** be, talk, lack · **To what, where:** solitary, Fionn, someone

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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 (robber), 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:pg2892:20:3
# text = If the robber was a solitary he would, for lack of someone else, have talked greatly to Fionn.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	robber	robber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	solitary	solitary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	advcl	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	lack	lack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	11	nmod	_	_
14	else	else	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	talked	talk	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
18	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the robber | a solitary and lack of someone |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **talk** | present · perfect |  |  | Fionn |  |  | greatly *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to fionn=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **lack** |  |  | someone |  |  |  |  | nom lack «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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