---
title: “I marvel,” said the king in a discontented voice, “that, considerin… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I marvel,” said the king in a discontented voice, “that, considering the numbers against them, the losses of clann-Morna should be so small.” Who acts: king, that, losses. 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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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I marvel,” said the king in a discontented voice, “that, considering the numbers against them, the losses of clann-Morna should be so small.”

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**Who acts:** king, that, losses · **What happens:** marvel, say, discontent, consider, be · **To what, where:** discontented voice, numbers · **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 (king, that, losses), 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:pg2892:47:16
# text = “I marvel,” said the king in a discontented voice, “that, considering the numbers against them, the losses of clann-Morna should be so small.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	marvel	marvel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	discontented	discontent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	amod	_	_
12	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	considering	consider	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	against	against	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	losses	loss	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	clann	clann	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Morna	Morna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
29	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
31	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **marvel** *in a quote* | present | the king *= king* |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king |  |  | a discontented voice |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **discontent** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **consider** *in a quote* | gerund | that | the numbers |  |  |  | against numbers *= number* | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent number=Attribute |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | should | the losses of clann  Morna |  |  |  |  | small *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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