---
title: “That,” he said, “would hold good for the white-striking or blows of… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “That,” he said, “would hold good for the white-striking or blows of fists, but not for the red-striking or sword-strokes.” Who acts: king, fists. 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 37

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“That,” he said, “would hold good for the white-striking or blows of fists, but not for the red-striking or sword-strokes.”

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**Who acts:** king, fists · **What happens:** say, hold, strike, blow · **To what, where:** That, blows · **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, fists), 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:pg2892:47:37
# text = “That,” he said, “would hold good for the white-striking or blows of fists, but not for the red-striking or sword-strokes.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	obl	_	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	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
11	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	striking	strike	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	blows	blow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	fists	fist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	striking	striking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	strokes	stroke	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | king | That |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **hold** *in a quote* | would |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **strike** *in a quote* | gerund |  | blows of fists |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blow=Patient |
| 4 | **blow** *in a quote* |  | fists |  |  |  |  |  | nom blow «act intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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