---
title: He could sit in safety among a pack that would have torn any man to… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He could sit in safety among a pack that would have torn any man to pieces, and the reason was that Bran and Sceo’lan, with their three whelps, followed him about like shadows. Who acts: boy, reason. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VI, sentence 4

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He could sit in safety among a pack that would have torn any man to pieces, and the reason was that Bran and Sceo’lan, with their three whelps, followed him about like shadows.

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**Who acts:** boy, reason · **What happens:** sit, tear, be · **To what, where:** safety, pack

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, reason), 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:pg2892:38:4
# text = He could sit in safety among a pack that would have torn any man to pieces, and the reason was that Bran and Sceo’lan, with their three whelps, followed him about like shadows.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	among	among	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	pack	pack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux	_	_
12	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl:relcl	_	_
13	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj:outer	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
23	Bran	Bran	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	Sceo’lan	Sceo'lan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
30	whelps	whelp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
32	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	about	about	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
35	like	like	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | could | boy |  |  | safety |  | among a pack | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in safety=Location |
| 2 | **tear** | would · perfect · passive |  | a pack |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Patient man=Result |
| 3 | **is** | past | the reason |  |  |  |  | like shadows; about, follow *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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