---
title: “Women,” he said, “are shamefaced, they do not like to appear eager… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Women,” he said, “are shamefaced, they do not like to appear eager when others are observing them.” Who acts: Women, others. 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 39

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“Women,” he said, “are shamefaced, they do not like to appear eager when others are observing them.”

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**Who acts:** Women, others · **What happens:** say, shamefac, not like, appear, observe · **To what, where:** eager, women · **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 (Women, others), 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:pg2892:35:39
# text = “Women,” he said, “are shamefaced, they do not like to appear eager when others are observing them.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	shamefaced	shamefac	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	appear	appear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	eager	eager	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
20	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
21	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	observing	observe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Women |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **shamefac** *in a quote* | present · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **like** *in a quote* | present · do-support | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **appear** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | women *= woman* *not said here* | eager |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location eager=Theme |
| 5 | **observe** *in a quote* | present · progressive | others | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent they=Topic |

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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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