---
title: The game was set then, and her play was so skilful that Art was hard… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The game was set then, and her play was so skilful that Art was hard put to counter her moves. Who acts: play, mother. 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 24

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The game was set then, and her play was so skilful that Art was hard put to counter her moves.

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**Who acts:** play, mother · **What happens:** set, be, put, counter, play, move · **To what, where:** game, Art, moves

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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 (play, mother), 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:pg2892:69:24
# text = The game was set then, and her play was so skilful that Art was hard put to counter her moves.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	game	game	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	skilful	skilful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	Art	Art	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
16	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
17	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	counter	counter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	moves	move	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | past · passive |  | the game |  |  | then |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result |
| 2 | **is** | past | mother's play |  |  |  |  | skilful *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **put** | past · passive |  | Art |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **counter** | infinitive |  | mother's moves |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent move=Theme |
| 5 | **play** |  | mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom play «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **move** |  | mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom move «act intransitive»: 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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