---
title: “But,” he continued, “to learn what woman she is, or where she comes… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “But,” he continued, “to learn what woman she is, or where she comes from, might bring us torment as well as information. Who acts: King, woman. 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 67

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“But,” he continued, “to learn what woman she is, or where she comes from, might bring us torment as well as information.

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**Who acts:** King, woman · **What happens:** continue, learn, be, come, bring · **To what, where:** woman, torment, us

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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 (King, woman), 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:pg2892:40:67
# text = “But,” he continued, “to learn what woman she is, or where she comes from, might bring us torment as well as information.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	det:predet	_	_
12	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	19	advmod	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	bring	bring	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
24	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	torment	torment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	29	cc	_	_
27	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	fixed	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
29	information	information	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **continue** | past | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **learn** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | King *not said here* | what woman |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Topic |
| 3 | **be** *in a quote* | present | woman | what woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot woman=Theme |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | present | woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **bring** *in a quote* | might |  | torment | us |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent we=Destination torment=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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