---
title: He promised if he could not discover her within a certain period tha… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He promised if he could not discover her within a certain period that he would deliver his body into Fionn’s hands, and would abide by whatever judgement Fionn might pronounce. Who acts: demand, Fionn. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 5

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He promised if he could not discover her within a certain period that he would deliver his body into Fionn’s hands, and would abide by whatever judgement Fionn might pronounce.

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**Who acts:** demand, Fionn · **What happens:** promise, not discover, deliver, abide, pronounce · **To what, where:** girl, body, hands, whatever, judgement

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (demand, Fionn), 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:pg2892:32:5
# text = He promised if he could not discover her within a certain period that he would deliver his body into Fionn’s hands, and would abide by whatever judgement Fionn might pronounce.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	within	within	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	period	period	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	deliver	deliver	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	abide	abide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
27	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	obj	_	_
29	judgement	judgement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
30	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
31	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	pronounce	pronounce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | demand |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **discover** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | demand | girl |  |  |  | within a certain period | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Topic |
| 3 | **deliver** | would | demand | demand's body |  | Fionn's hands |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent body=Patient |
| 4 | **abide** | would | demand *not said here* | whatever |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **pronounce** | might | Fionn | judgement *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent judgement=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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