---
title: They did their best under these observing eyes, and it was not long… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They did their best under these observing eyes, and it was not long until he was invited to compete with them and show his mettle. Who acts: Boys, happiness, hare. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VIII, sentence 12

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They did their best under these observing eyes, and it was not long until he was invited to compete with them and show his mettle.

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**Who acts:** Boys, happiness, hare · **What happens:** do, observe, not be, invite, compete, show · **To what, where:** best, observing eyes, hare, mettle

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Boys, happiness, hare), 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:pg2892:21:12
# text = They did their best under these observing eyes, and it was not long until he was invited to compete with them and show his mettle.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	2	obj	_	_
5	under	under	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
7	observing	observe	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	amod	_	_
8	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
15	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	invited	invite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	compete	compete	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	mettle	mettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | Boys *= boy* | Boys's best |  | this observing eyes |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |
| 2 | **observe** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past | happiness |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **invite** | past · passive |  | hare |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **compete** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with Boys *= boy* | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with they=Co-Agent |
| 6 | **show** | infinitive | hare *not said here* | hare's mettle |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent mettle=Recipient |

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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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