---
title: It took him to keep the Fianna safe, but it took all the Fianna to k… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It took him to keep the Fianna safe, but it took all the Fianna to keep their captain out of danger. Who acts: It. 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 4

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It took him to keep the Fianna safe, but it took all the Fianna to keep their captain out of danger.

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**Who acts:** It · **What happens:** take, keep · **To what, where:** Fionn, Fianna, captain, danger

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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 (It), 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:pg2892:56:4
# text = It took him to keep the Fianna safe, but it took all the Fianna to keep their captain out of danger.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Fianna	Fianna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Fianna	Fianna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	captain	captain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | It |  | Fionn |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination |
| 2 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | the Fianna |  |  |  | safe *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fianna=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past | it |  | all Fianna |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument fianna=Destination |
| 4 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | abysses's captain |  | danger |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent captain=Theme out danger=Location |

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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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