---
title: “It would be almost as easy,” the boy submitted, “if one were to set… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “It would be almost as easy,” the boy submitted, “if one were to set on the track of the Sacred Hazel and eat the nuts straight from the bush.” Who acts: Salmon, boy, one. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IX, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IX, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It would be almost as easy,” the boy submitted, “if one were to set on the track of the Sacred Hazel and eat the nuts straight from the bush.”

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**Who acts:** Salmon, boy, one · **What happens:** be, submit, set, eat · **To what, where:** track, nuts, bush · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IX. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Salmon, boy, one), 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:pg2892:22:50
# text = “It would be almost as easy,” the boy submitted, “if one were to set on the track of the Sacred Hazel and eat the nuts straight from the bush.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
5	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	submitted	submit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	one	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	track	track	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	Sacred	Sacred	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	Hazel	Hazel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	nuts	nut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
31	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
32	from	from	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | would | Salmon |  |  |  |  | almost, easy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **submit** | past | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **set** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | one |  |  | the track of the Sacred Hazel |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on track=Destination |
| 4 | **eat** *in a quote* | present | one *not said here* | the nuts |  | the bush |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nut=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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