---
title: But joy and sorrow, or, in other words, good and evil, are not absen… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But joy and sorrow, or, in other words, good and evil, are not absent in their degree from any of the worlds, for wherever there is life there is action, and action is but the expression of one or other of these qualities. Who acts: life, action. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But joy and sorrow, or, in other words, good and evil, are not absent in their degree from any of the worlds, for wherever there is life there is action, and action is but the expression of one or other of these qualities.

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**Who acts:** life, action · **What happens:** not be, be · **To what, where:** other words, life, expression

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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 (life, action), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2892:62:2
# text = But joy and sorrow, or, in other words, good and evil, are not absent in their degree from any of the worlds, for wherever there is life there is action, and action is but the expression of one or other of these qualities.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
6	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	absent	absent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	degree	degree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	worlds	world	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	wherever	wherever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	31	advmod	_	_
30	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	31	expl	_	_
31	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
32	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
33	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	34	expl	_	_
34	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
35	action	action	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
38	action	action	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
39	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
40	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	expression	expression	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	42	nmod	_	_
45	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	conj	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	49	det	_	_
49	qualities	quality	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present |  |  |  | other words |  | in words's degree; from any; absent *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | present | life |  |  | there |  | wherever *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | life |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | present | action | the expression |  |  |  | of one of this qualities | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/62/1/)
- next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/62/3/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter I](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/62/)