---
title: “Are you sure,” she asked, “that the poets and magicians really know… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Are you sure,” she asked, “that the poets and magicians really know everything?” Who acts: you, reason, poets. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII, sentence 25

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“Are you sure,” she asked, “that the poets and magicians really know everything?”

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**Who acts:** you, reason, poets · **What happens:** be, ask, know · **To what, where:** everything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, reason, poets), 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:pg2892:68:25
# text = “Are you sure,” she asked, “that the poets and magicians really know everything?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	poets	poet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	magicians	magician	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
16	really	really	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
18	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | reason |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **know** *in a quote* | infinitive | the poets and magicians | everything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer everything=Stimulus |

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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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