---
title: “We had never known Fionn to return from a combat before it had been… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “We had never known Fionn to return from a combat before it had been fought, and we knew you could not have reached Ben Edar or encountered the Lochlannachs. Who acts: We, you. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 11

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“We had never known Fionn to return from a combat before it had been fought, and we knew you could not have reached Ben Edar or encountered the Lochlannachs.

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**Who acts:** We, you · **What happens:** not know, return, fight, know, not reach, encounter · **To what, where:** Fionn, combat, Ben, Lochlannachs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, you), 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:pg2892:36:11
# text = “We had never known Fionn to return from a combat before it had been fought, and we knew you could not have reached Ben Edar or encountered the Lochlannachs.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	combat	combat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	fought	fight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux	_	_
25	reached	reach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	ccomp	_	_
26	Ben	Ben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
27	Edar	Edar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	flat	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	encountered	encounter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Lochlannachs	Lochlannachs	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | past · perfect | We | Fionn |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **return** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | We *not said here* |  |  | a combat |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from combat=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **fight** *in a quote* | past · perfect · passive |  | combat |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **know** *in a quote* | past | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **not** **reach** *in a quote* | could · perfect | you | Ben |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent ben=Theme |
| 6 | **encounter** *in a quote* | past | you *not said here* | the Lochlannachs |  |  |  |  | vn encounter-30.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer lochlannachs=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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