---
title: “By my hand and word,” said the harsh stranger, “your talk makes me… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “By my hand and word,” said the harsh stranger, “your talk makes me think of a small boy or of an idiot.” Who acts: harsh stranger, talk, your. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 31

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“By my hand and word,” said the harsh stranger, “your talk makes me think of a small boy or of an idiot.”

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**Who acts:** harsh stranger, talk, your · **What happens:** say, make, think, talk · **To what, where:** harsh stranger · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (harsh stranger, talk, your), 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:pg2892:48:31
# text = “By my hand and word,” said the harsh stranger, “your talk makes me think of a small boy or of an idiot.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	By	by	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	harsh	harsh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	idiot	idiot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	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 | the harsh stranger |  |  |  |  | by my hand and word | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **make** *in a quote* | present | your talk | the harsh stranger *= stranger* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | infinitive | the harsh stranger *= stranger* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of a small boy or a idiot | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **talk** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom talk «communication intransitive»: poss=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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- ← previous: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/48/30/)
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- ↑ back to [Chapter I](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/48/)