---
title: “A prince’s duty could be set him, and in such an absence he would i… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “A prince’s duty could be set him, and in such an absence he would improve his knowledge both of Ireland and of men. Who acts: king. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 33

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“A prince’s duty could be set him, and in such an absence he would improve his knowledge both of Ireland and of men.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** set, improve · **To what, where:** duty, knowledge, absence

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), 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:pg2892:64:33
# text = “A prince’s duty could be set him, and in such an absence he would improve his knowledge both of Ireland and of men.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	duty	duty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	15	det:predet	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	improve	improve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	nsubj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	parataxis	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** *in a quote* | could · passive |  | a prince's duty |  |  |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme he=Destination |
| 2 | **improve** *in a quote* | would | king | king's knowledge |  | such absence |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent knowledge=Patient |

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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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