---
title: He may have blushed as he said it, for the king, possibly for the fi… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He may have blushed as he said it, for the king, possibly for the first time, was really looking at him, and was looking back through twenty years of time as he did so. Who acts: Fionn, king. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VIII, sentence 54

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He may have blushed as he said it, for the king, possibly for the first time, was really looking at him, and was looking back through twenty years of time as he did so.

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**Who acts:** Fionn, king · **What happens:** blush, say, look, look back, do · **To what, where:** countryman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Fionn, king), 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:pg2892:21:54
# text = He may have blushed as he said it, for the king, possibly for the first time, was really looking at him, and was looking back through twenty years of time as he did so.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	blushed	blush	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	18	amod	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	really	really	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	conj	_	_
29	back	back	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	through	through	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
32	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	_
35	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
38	so	so	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **blush** | may · perfect | Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Fionn | countryman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **look** | past · progressive | the king for the first time |  |  |  |  | at Fionn | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |
| 4 | **look back** | past · progressive | the king for the first time *not said here* |  |  |  | year |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **do** | past | Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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