---
title: “My heart,” he said, “we must always try to act wisely, and we shoul… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “My heart,” he said, “we must always try to act wisely, and we should only insist on receiving answers to questions in which we are personally concerned.” Who acts: heart, we. 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 59

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“My heart,” he said, “we must always try to act wisely, and we should only insist on receiving answers to questions in which we are personally concerned.”

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**Who acts:** heart, we · **What happens:** say, try, act, insist, receive, be · **To what, where:** answers, questions · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (heart, we), 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:pg2892:40:59
# text = “My heart,” he said, “we must always try to act wisely, and we should only insist on receiving answers to questions in which we are personally concerned.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
13	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	act	act	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	wisely	wisely	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	insist	insist	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
23	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	receiving	receive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
25	answers	answer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	obl	_	_
30	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
32	personally	personally	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	concerned	concerned	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | My heart |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **try** *in a quote* | must | we |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **act** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | wisely *property* | vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **insist** *speech: other* *in a quote* | should | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **receive** *in a quote* | gerund | we *not said here* | answers |  |  |  | to questions | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent answer=Theme |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  | questions |  | concerned, personally *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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