---
title: They wished to see what destruction had been wrought by the great be… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They wished to see what destruction had been wrought by the great being, but it was young Fionn they saw and that redoubtable head swinging by its hair. Who acts: senses, destruction, young Fionn, redoubtable head. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV, with its dependency
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIV, sentence 34

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They wished to see what destruction had been wrought by the great being, but it was young Fionn they saw and that redoubtable head swinging by its hair.

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**Who acts:** senses, destruction, young Fionn, redoubtable head · **What happens:** wish, see, wrought, be, swing · **To what, where:** destruction, young Fionn · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (senses, destruction, young Fionn, redoubtable head), 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:pg2892:27:34
# text = They wished to see what destruction had been wrought by the great being, but it was young Fionn they saw and that redoubtable head swinging by its hair.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	6	det	_	_
6	destruction	destruction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	wrought	wrought	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	obl	_	_
13	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
24	redoubtable	redoubtable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
26	swinging	swing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
27	by	by	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** | past | senses *= sens* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | senses *= sens* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **wrought** | past · perfect · passive |  | what destruction |  |  |  | by the great | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | destruction | young Fionn |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **see** | past | young Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **swing** | gerund | that redoubtable head *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by destruction's hair | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme by hair=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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