---
title: “We would prefer to kill a cow or a thousand cows rather than harm t… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “We would prefer to kill a cow or a thousand cows rather than harm this young prince,” said Conn, “but if we spare the boy will these evils return?” Who acts: We, Conn, evils. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“We would prefer to kill a cow or a thousand cows rather than harm this young prince,” said Conn, “but if we spare the boy will these evils return?”

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**Who acts:** We, Conn, evils · **What happens:** prefer, kill, harm, say, spare, return · **To what, where:** cow, young prince, boy · **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 (We, Conn, evils), 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:pg2892:68:34
# text = “We would prefer to kill a cow or a thousand cows rather than harm this young prince,” said Conn, “but if we spare the boy will these evils return?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	prefer	prefer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
13	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	15	cc	_	_
14	than	than	ADP	IN	_	13	fixed	_	_
15	harm	harm	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
17	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	Conn	Conn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
24	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
26	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	spare	spare	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
32	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	33	det	_	_
33	evils	evil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
34	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prefer** *in a quote* | would | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **kill** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | We *not said here* | a cow or a thousand cows |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Theme |
| 3 | **harm** *in a quote* | infinitive | We *not said here* | this young prince |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus prince=Experiencer |
| 4 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Conn |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **spare** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | we | the boy |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent boy=Asset |
| 6 | **return** *in a quote* | future | this evils |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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