---
title: Or perhaps she had really desired the son instead of the father, and… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Or perhaps she had really desired the son instead of the father, and her thwarted desire had perpetuated itself as hate. Who acts: Becuma. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VIII, sentence 15

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Or perhaps she had really desired the son instead of the father, and her thwarted desire had perpetuated itself as hate.

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**Who acts:** Becuma · **What happens:** desire, thwart, perpetuate · **To what, where:** son, thwarted desire

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Becuma), 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:pg2892:69:15
# text = Or perhaps she had really desired the son instead of the father, and her thwarted desire had perpetuated itself as hate.
1	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	really	really	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	desired	desire	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	12	case	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	thwarted	thwart	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	perpetuated	perpetuate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
20	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	hate	hate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **desire** | past · perfect | Becuma | the son |  |  |  | instead the father; perhaps *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot son=Theme |
| 2 | **thwart** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **perpetuate** | past · perfect · passive |  | Becuma's thwarted desire |  |  |  | as hate | tree rules |
| 4 | **desire** |  | Becuma |  |  |  |  |  | nom desire «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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