---
title: “I swear that,” said Cael, “and I would swear anything to get home.” — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I swear that,” said Cael, “and I would swear anything to get home.” Who acts: Cael. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VIII, sentence 26

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“I swear that,” said Cael, “and I would swear anything to get home.”

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**Who acts:** Cael · **What happens:** swear, say, get · **To what, where:** that, anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cael), 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:pg2892:55:26
# text = “I swear that,” said Cael, “and I would swear anything to get home.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	swear	swear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	Cael	Cael	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	swear	swear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
15	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl	_	_
18	home	home	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swear** *in a quote* | present | Cael | that |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Cael |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **swear** *in a quote* | would | Cael | anything |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 4 | **get** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Cael *not said here* | anything *not said here* |  |  |  | home *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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