---
title: The poets and magicians met to consider why this disaster should hav… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The poets and magicians met to consider why this disaster should have befallen the country and by their arts they discovered the truth about the king’s wife, and that she was Becuma of the White Skin, and they discovered also the cause of her banishment from the Many-Coloured Land that is beyond the
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 29

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The poets and magicians met to consider why this disaster should have befallen the country and by their arts they discovered the truth about the king’s wife, and that she was Becuma of the White Skin, and they discovered also the cause of her banishment from the Many-Coloured Land that is beyond the sea, which is beyond even the grave.

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**Who acts:** poets, harvest, Coloured Land, sea · **What happens:** meet, consider, befall, discover, be, cause · **To what, where:** disaster, truth, Becuma, cause, Coloured Land, banishment

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poets, harvest, Coloured Land, sea), 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:pg2892:65:29
# text = The poets and magicians met to consider why this disaster should have befallen the country and by their arts they discovered the truth about the king’s wife, and that she was Becuma of the White Skin, and they discovered also the cause of her banishment from the Many-Coloured Land that is beyond the sea, which is beyond even the grave.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	poets	poet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	magicians	magician	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
5	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	consider	consider	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
9	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	disaster	disaster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
13	befallen	befall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	arts	art	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	discovered	discover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	about	about	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’s	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
34	Becuma	Becuma	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	White	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	Skin	Skin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
41	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	discovered	discover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	acl:relcl	_	_
43	also	also	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	banishment	banishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	_
49	from	from	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
51	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	51	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	Coloured	coloured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	amod	_	_
54	Land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	_
55	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	59	nsubj	_	_
56	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	59	cop	_	_
57	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	66	punct	_	_
61	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	66	nsubj	_	_
62	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	66	cop	_	_
63	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	66	case	_	_
64	even	even	ADV	RB	_	66	advmod	_	_
65	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
66	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
67	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | the poets and magicians |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **consider** | to-infinitive | the poets and magicians *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **befall** | should · perfect · passive |  | this disaster |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **discover** | past | poets *= poet* | the truth |  |  |  | by poets's arts; about the king's wife | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent truth=Topic |
| 5 | **is a** | past | harvest | Becuma |  |  |  | of the White Skin | tree rules |
| 6 | **discover** | past | poets *= poet* | the cause of harvest's banishment |  | the Coloured Land |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cause=Topic |
| 7 | **is** | present | the Coloured Land |  |  |  |  | beyond the sea and the grave | tree rules |
| 8 | **is** | present | the sea and the grave |  |  |  |  | beyond the grave | tree rules |
| 9 | **cause** |  |  | harvest's banishment |  |  |  |  | nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient |
| 10 | **banish** |  | harvest |  |  |  |  |  | nom banishment «state transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/65/28/)
- next →: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/65/30/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter IV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/65/)