---
title: When the machinery of anything is explained to us we grow interested… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When the machinery of anything is explained to us we grow interested, and Crimthann became, by instruction, as astonished as the king was. Who acts: we, Crimthann, king. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 19

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When the machinery of anything is explained to us we grow interested, and Crimthann became, by instruction, as astonished as the king was.

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**Who acts:** we, Crimthann, king · **What happens:** explain, grow, become, be · **To what, where:** machinery, us, instruction

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, Crimthann, king), 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:pg2892:40:19
# text = When the machinery of anything is explained to us we grow interested, and Crimthann became, by instruction, as astonished as the king was.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	machinery	machinery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	nmod	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	explained	explain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
10	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	grow	grow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	interested	interested	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	Crimthann	Crimthann	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	instruction	instruction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	astonished	astonished	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | present · passive |  | the machinery of anything | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to we=Recipient |
| 2 | **grow** | present | we |  |  |  |  | interested *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **become** | past | Crimthann | instruction |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **be** | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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