---
title: “Because in any matter that concerned me Fionn would turn a lie into… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Because in any matter that concerned me Fionn would turn a lie into truth and the truth into a lie.” Who acts: matter, Fionn. 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 6

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“Because in any matter that concerned me Fionn would turn a lie into truth and the truth into a lie.”

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**Who acts:** matter, Fionn · **What happens:** concern, turn · **To what, where:** king, lie, matter

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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 (matter, Fionn), 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:pg2892:47:6
# text = “Because in any matter that concerned me Fionn would turn a lie into truth and the truth into a lie.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	concerned	concern	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	lie	lie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	lie	lie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **concern** *in a quote* | past | any matter | the king *= king* |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus i=Experiencer |
| 2 | **turn** *in a quote* | would | Fionn | a lie |  | any matter |  | into truth and the truth; into a lie | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.agent V NP.theme PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Agent lie=Theme in matter=Source into truth=Trajectory into lie=Destination |

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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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