---
title: “I did taste it by chance,” Fionn laughed, “for while the fish was r… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I did taste it by chance,” Fionn laughed, “for while the fish was roasting a great blister rose on its skin. Who acts: proud Fionn, Fionn, fish. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter X, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter X, sentence 45

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“I did taste it by chance,” Fionn laughed, “for while the fish was roasting a great blister rose on its skin.

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**Who acts:** proud Fionn, Fionn, fish · **What happens:** taste, laugh, roast · **To what, where:** fish, great blister rose · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter X. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (proud Fionn, Fionn, fish), 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:pg2892:23:45
# text = “I did taste it by chance,” Fionn laughed, “for while the fish was roasting a great blister rose on its skin.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	taste	taste	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	roasting	roast	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	blister	blister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	rose	rose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **taste** *in a quote* | past · do-support | proud Fionn *= fionn* | fish |  |  |  | by chance | vn stalk-35.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme by chance=Location |
| 2 | **laugh** | past | Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **roast** *in a quote* | past · progressive | the fish | a great blister rose |  |  |  | on fish's skin | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent rose=Patient on skin=Instrument |

<!-- .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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