---
title: But the law of life is change; nothing continues in the same way for… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the law of life is change; nothing continues in the same way for any length of time; happiness must become unhappiness, and will be succeeded again by the joy it had displaced. Who acts: law, change, happiness, joy. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its depend
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 2

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But the law of life is change; nothing continues in the same way for any length of time; happiness must become unhappiness, and will be succeeded again by the joy it had displaced.

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**Who acts:** law, change, happiness, joy · **What happens:** be, continue, become, succeed, displace · **To what, where:** change, same way, unhappiness, happiness

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (law, change, happiness, joy), 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:pg2892:29:2
# text = But the law of life is change; nothing continues in the same way for any length of time; happiness must become unhappiness, and will be succeeded again by the joy it had displaced.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	10	nsubj	_	_
10	continues	continue	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
24	unhappiness	unhappiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	succeeded	succeed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
30	again	again	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	by	by	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj:pass	_	_
35	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	displaced	displace	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the law of life | change |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **continue** | present | change |  |  | the same way for any length of time |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **become** | must | happiness | unhappiness |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **succeed** | future · passive | the joy |  |  |  | again |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **displace** | past · perfect · passive | the joy *not said here* | happiness |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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