---
title: In the night he might have fought them; his ears against theirs; his… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In the night he might have fought them; his ears against theirs; his noiseless feet against their lurking ones; his knowledge of the wood against their legion: but during the day he had no chance. Who acts: Fionn. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII, with its dependency 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII, sentence 39

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In the night he might have fought them; his ears against theirs; his noiseless feet against their lurking ones; his knowledge of the wood against their legion: but during the day he had no chance.

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**Who acts:** Fionn · **What happens:** fight, have · **To what, where:** bush, chance

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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 (Fionn), 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:pg2892:20:39
# text = In the night he might have fought them; his ears against theirs; his noiseless feet against their lurking ones; his knowledge of the wood against their legion: but during the day he had no chance.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
7	fought	fight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
12	against	against	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	theirs	their	PRON	PRP	Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	noiseless	noiseless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
18	against	against	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	lurking	lurking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	against	against	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	legion	legion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	37	punct	_	_
32	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
33	during	during	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
38	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	39	det	_	_
39	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | might · perfect | Fionn | bush |  |  | night | Fionn's ears against bush and Fionn's noiseless feet against bush's lurking ones *obl*; Fionn's knowledge of the wood against bush's legion *obl* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **have** | past | Fionn | no chance |  |  | day |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Patient |

<!-- .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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