---
title: Had it been possible he would have tethered the birds to their own g… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Had it been possible he would have tethered the birds to their own green branches on that day, and forbidden the clouds to pack the upper world with stir and colour. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Had it been possible he would have tethered the birds to their own green branches on that day, and forbidden the clouds to pack the upper world with stir and colour.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** tether, forbid, pack · **To what, where:** king, clouds, upper world

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II. 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:pg2892:41:28
# text = Had it been possible he would have tethered the birds to their own green branches on that day, and forbidden the clouds to pack the upper world with stir and colour.
1	Had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	aux:pass	_	_
4	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux	_	_
8	tethered	tether	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
13	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	forbidden	forbid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	pack	pack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	upper	upper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	stir	stir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tether** | would · past · perfect · passive |  | king |  |  |  | to beings's own green branches on that day | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP ADJP»: subject=Patient bird=Result |
| 2 | **forbid** | participle |  | the clouds |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **pack** | to-infinitive |  | the upper world |  |  |  | with stir and colour | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent world=Destination with stir=Theme |

<!-- .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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