---
title: “If I could refuse anything to Fionn it would be a dog,” said Fergus… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “If I could refuse anything to Fionn it would be a dog,” said Fergus, “but I could not refuse anything to Fionn, so give me the hound.” Who acts: Fergus, message. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 42

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“If I could refuse anything to Fionn it would be a dog,” said Fergus, “but I could not refuse anything to Fionn, so give me the hound.”

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**Who acts:** Fergus, message · **What happens:** refuse, be, say, not refuse, give · **To what, where:** anything, Fionn, dog, hound, Fergus · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fergus, message), 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:pg2892:30:42
# text = “If I could refuse anything to Fionn it would be a dog,” said Fergus, “but I could not refuse anything to Fionn, so give me the hound.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
6	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	Fergus	Fergus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	parataxis	_	_
25	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
31	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	iobj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	hound	hound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | could | Fergus | anything | Fionn |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | would | message | a dog |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Fergus |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **refuse** *in a quote* | could | Fergus | anything | Fionn |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Theme |
| 5 | **give** *in a quote* | infinitive | Fergus *not said here* | the hound | Fergus |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient hound=Theme |

<!-- .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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