---
title: Once, when seven years had passed in fruitless search, Fionn and the… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once, when seven years had passed in fruitless search, Fionn and the chief nobles of the Fianna were hunting Ben Gulbain. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 4

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Once, when seven years had passed in fruitless search, Fionn and the chief nobles of the Fianna were hunting Ben Gulbain.

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**What happens:** pass, hunt · **To what, where:** seven years, fruitless search, Ben

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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: 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:pg2892:37:4
# text = Once, when seven years had passed in fruitless search, Fionn and the chief nobles of the Fianna were hunting Ben Gulbain.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
4	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	fruitless	fruitless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	chief	chief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	nobles	noble	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Fianna	Fianna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
22	Ben	Ben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	Gulbain	Gulbain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past · perfect · passive |  | seven years |  | fruitless search |  | once *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme in search=Destination |
| 2 | **hunt** | past · progressive |  | Ben |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ben=Theme |

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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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