---
title: “I know how to do these things,” the other man commented with a slow… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I know how to do these things,” the other man commented with a slow nod of the head. Who acts: I. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/49/23/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 23

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“I know how to do these things,” the other man commented with a slow nod of the head.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** know, do, comment, nod · **To what, where:** things, other man, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg2892:49:23
# text = “I know how to do these things,” the other man commented with a slow nod of the head.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
14	commented	comment	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	nod	nod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | this things |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 3 | **comment** *speech: other* | participle |  | the other man *not said here* |  |  |  | with a slow nod of the head | vn lecture-37.11-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **nod** |  |  | the head |  |  |  |  | nom nod «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/49/22/)
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- ↑ back to [Chapter II](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/49/)