---
title: “If you object to the testimony of the chief person present, in what… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “If you object to the testimony of the chief person present, in what way are we to obtain evidence?” the king demanded. Who acts: you, object, king, chief person present. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/47/9/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Irish Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/) / [Chapter III](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/47/) / 9

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“If you object to the testimony of the chief person present, in what way are we to obtain evidence?” the king demanded.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, object, king, chief person present · **What happens:** object, be, demand, testify · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (you, object, king, chief person present), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2892:47:9
# text = “If you object to the testimony of the chief person present, in what way are we to obtain evidence?” the king demanded.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	object	object	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	testimony	testimony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	chief	chief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	appos	_	_
16	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
17	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	parataxis	_	_
21	evidence	evidence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	demanded	demand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **object** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* |  | you |  |  |  |  | to the testimony of the chief person present | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | object |  |  |  |  | obtain *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **demand** *speech: request* | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn require-103-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Theme clause=Precondition |
| 4 | **testify** *in a quote* |  | the chief person present |  |  |  |  |  | nom testimony «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/47/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/47/10/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter III](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/47/)