---
title: “Alas,” he replied, “if it has been a gallant deed it has not been a… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Alas,” he replied, “if it has been a gallant deed it has not been a good one, for my three brothers are dead and my four nephews are dead.” Who acts: Alas, combat, four nephews. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/42/28/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 28

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“Alas,” he replied, “if it has been a gallant deed it has not been a good one, for my three brothers are dead and my four nephews are dead.”

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**Who acts:** Alas, combat, four nephews · **What happens:** reply, be, have, not be · **To what, where:** gallant deed, good one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Alas, combat, four nephews), 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:pg2892:42:28
# text = “Alas,” he replied, “if it has been a gallant deed it has not been a good one, for my three brothers are dead and my four nephews are dead.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Alas	ala	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	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	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
11	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
12	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	cop	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	gallant	gallant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	deed	deed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
19	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	cop	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	_
28	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	advcl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
31	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
32	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
33	nephews	nephew	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
34	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
35	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Alas |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present · perfect | combat | a gallant deed |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present | combat | a gallant deed *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deed=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | participle |  | a good one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | for my three brothers; dead *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present | my four nephews |  |  |  |  | dead *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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- ← previous: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/42/27/)
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- ↑ back to [Chapter III](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/42/)