---
title: He was not ashamed of it; he merely thought it was finished, althoug… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He was not ashamed of it; he merely thought it was finished, although in truth it was only beginning, for it is that perpetual beginning of the past that we call the future. Who acts: future, past, we. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 5

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He was not ashamed of it; he merely thought it was finished, although in truth it was only beginning, for it is that perpetual beginning of the past that we call the future.

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**Who acts:** future, past, we · **What happens:** not be, think, be, begin, call · **To what, where:** truth, past · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (future, past, we), 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:pg2892:29:5
# text = He was not ashamed of it; he merely thought it was finished, although in truth it was only beginning, for it is that perpetual beginning of the past that we call the future.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	ashamed	ashamed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	finished	finished	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	only	only	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	beginning	begin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	perpetual	perpetual	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	obj	_	_
33	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	call	call	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	future	future	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | future |  |  |  |  | of past; ashamed *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | future |  |  |  |  | merely *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | past |  |  |  |  | finished *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **begin** | past · progressive | past |  |  | truth |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **is** | present | past |  |  |  | for perpetual beginning | of the past | tree rules |
| 6 | **call** | present | we | the past |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme future=Result |

<!-- .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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