---
title: The observation of a king is faultless--it is proved a thousand time… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The observation of a king is faultless--it is proved a thousand times over in the tales, and this king’s equipment was as royal as the next. Who acts: observation, equipment. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VIII, sentence 55

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The observation of a king is faultless--it is proved a thousand times over in the tales, and this king’s equipment was as royal as the next.

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**Who acts:** observation, equipment · **What happens:** be, prove, observe · **To what, where:** observation, tales, king

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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 (observation, equipment), 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:pg2892:21:55
# text = The observation of a king is faultless--it is proved a thousand times over in the tales, and this king’s equipment was as royal as the next.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	observation	observation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	faultless	faultless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	proved	prove	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	over	over	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	equipment	equipment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	as	as	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	_
28	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the observation of a king |  |  |  |  | faultless *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **prove** | present · passive |  | observation |  | the tales | time | over *property* | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | this king's equipment |  |  |  |  | royal *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | this king's equipment *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **observe** |  |  | a king |  |  |  |  | nom observation «act 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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