---
title: “We do not wish to slay this prince for our pleasure,” they argued,… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “We do not wish to slay this prince for our pleasure,” they argued, “but for the safety of Ireland he must be killed.” Who acts: We, protections, our. 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 7

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“We do not wish to slay this prince for our pleasure,” they argued, “but for the safety of Ireland he must be killed.”

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**Who acts:** We, protections, our · **What happens:** not wish, slay, argue, kill, please · **To what, where:** prince, Ireland · **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, protections, our), 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:pg2892:68:7
# text = “We do not wish to slay this prince for our pleasure,” they argued, “but for the safety of Ireland he must be killed.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	argued	argue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **wish** *in a quote* | present · do-support | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **slay** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | We *not said here* | this prince |  |  |  | for our pleasure | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prince=Patient |
| 3 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | past | protections *= protection* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **kill** *in a quote* | must · passive |  | Ireland |  |  |  | for the safety of Ireland | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **please** *in a quote* |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom pleasure «feeling 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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