---
title: Fionn mac Uail was the most prudent chief of an army in the world, b… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Fionn mac Uail was the most prudent chief of an army in the world, but he was not always prudent on his own account. Who acts: Fionn. 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 1

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Fionn mac Uail was the most prudent chief of an army in the world, but he was not always prudent on his own account.

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**Who acts:** Fionn · **What happens:** be, not be, account · **To what, where:** prudent chief, own account

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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 (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:pg2892:56:1
# text = Fionn mac Uail was the most prudent chief of an army in the world, but he was not always prudent on his own account.
1	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
2	mac	Mac	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	Uail	Uail	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	prudent	prudent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	21	advmod	_	_
21	prudent	prudent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Fionn | the prudent chief |  |  |  | of a army in the world | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | Fionn |  |  | Fionn's own account |  | always, prudent *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **account** |  | Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication transitive»: 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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