---
title: These three returned then, and at the end of a day and night they sa… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: These three returned then, and at the end of a day and night they saw far off the mighty roofs of Tara massed in the morning haze. Who acts: three, nephews, mighty roofs. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/42/40/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 40

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These three returned then, and at the end of a day and night they saw far off the mighty roofs of Tara massed in the morning haze.

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**Who acts:** three, nephews, mighty roofs · **What happens:** return, see, mass · **To what, where:** end, morning haze

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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 (three, nephews, mighty roofs), 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:pg2892:42:40
# text = These three returned then, and at the end of a day and night they saw far off the mighty roofs of Tara massed in the morning haze.
1	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nsubj	_	_
3	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
17	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
18	off	off	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	roofs	roof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Tara	Tara	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	massed	mass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	haze	haze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | this three |  |  |  | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | nephews *= nephew* |  |  |  | at the end of a day and night |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **mass** | past | the mighty roofs of Tara |  |  | the morning haze |  |  | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=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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- ← previous: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/42/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/42/41/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter III](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/42/)