---
title: We do not know what ill he could do to the fairies, but during Dermo… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: We do not know what ill he could do to the fairies, but during Dermod’s reign the world said its prayers on Sunday and the Shi’ folk stayed in their hills. Who acts: We, king, world, prayers. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 31

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We do not know what ill he could do to the fairies, but during Dermod’s reign the world said its prayers on Sunday and the Shi’ folk stayed in their hills.

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**Who acts:** We, king, world, prayers · **What happens:** not know, do, say, stay, pray · **To what, where:** hills · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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: who acts (We, king, world, prayers), 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:pg2892:41:31
# text = We do not know what ill he could do to the fairies, but during Dermod’s reign the world said its prayers on Sunday and the Shi’ folk stayed in their hills.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	nsubj	_	_
6	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	during	during	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	Dermod	Dermod	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	’s	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	reign	reign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	prayers	prayer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	Sunday	Sunday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Shi	Shi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	folk	folk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
31	stayed	stay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **do** | could | king |  |  |  |  | to the fairies | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the world |  |  |  | during Dermod's reign |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **stay** | past | world's prayers on Sunday and the Shi's folk |  |  | fairies's hills |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hill=Location |
| 5 | **pray** |  | world |  |  |  |  | on Sunday | nom prayer «act intransitive»: poss=agent on=obl |

<!-- .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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