---
title: For a great wish had come upon him to walk beside the sea; to listen… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: For a great wish had come upon him to walk beside the sea; to listen to the roll and boom of long, grey breakers; to gaze on an unfruitful, desolate wilderness of waters; and to forget in those sights all that he could forget, and if he could not forget then to remember all that he should remember. 
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/63/17/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 17

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For a great wish had come upon him to walk beside the sea; to listen to the roll and boom of long, grey breakers; to gaze on an unfruitful, desolate wilderness of waters; and to forget in those sights all that he could forget, and if he could not forget then to remember all that he should remember.

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**Who acts:** Ireland · **What happens:** come, walk, listen, gaze, desolate, forget · **To what, where:** sea, wilderness, sights, all, long grey breakers

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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 (Ireland), 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:pg2892:63:17
# text = For a great wish had come upon him to walk beside the sea; to listen to the roll and boom of long, grey breakers; to gaze on an unfruitful, desolate wilderness of waters; and to forget in those sights all that he could forget, and if he could not forget then to remember all that he should remember.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
11	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	listen	listen	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	roll	roll	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	boom	boom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
25	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	breakers	breaker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	gaze	gaze	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	unfruitful	unfruitful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
34	desolate	desolate	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
35	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	41	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
41	forget	forget	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	44	det	_	_
44	sights	sight	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obl	_	_
45	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	49	det:predet	_	_
46	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	49	mark	_	_
47	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
48	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	49	aux	_	_
49	forget	forget	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
52	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	56	mark	_	_
53	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	nsubj	_	_
54	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	56	aux	_	_
55	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	56	advmod	_	_
56	forget	forget	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	conj	_	_
57	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	59	advmod	_	_
58	to	to	PART	TO	_	59	mark	_	_
59	remember	remember	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	56	xcomp	_	_
60	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	59	obj	_	_
61	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	64	mark	_	_
62	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	64	nsubj	_	_
63	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	64	aux	_	_
64	remember	remember	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	60	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | for a great wish; upon Ireland | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon he=Location |
| 2 | **walk** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the sea |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beside sea=Trajectory |
| 3 | **listen** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | to the roll and boom of long grey breakers | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to roll=Theme |
| 4 | **gaze** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | on a unfruitful | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on unfruitful=Theme |
| 5 | **desolate** | infinitive |  | wilderness of waters |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **forget** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | that sights |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **forget** | could | Ireland |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **not** **forget** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | Ireland |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **remember** | to-infinitive | Ireland *not said here* | all |  |  | then |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent all=Theme |
| 10 | **remember** | should | Ireland |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 11 | **boom** |  |  | long grey breakers |  |  |  |  | nom boom «event 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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- ↑ back to [Chapter II](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/63/)