---
title: The abbot of the Monastery of Moville sent word to the story-tellers… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The abbot of the Monastery of Moville sent word to the story-tellers of Ireland that when they were in his neighbourhood they should call at the monastery, for he wished to collect and write down the stories which were in danger of being forgotten. Who acts: abbot, tellers, neighbourhood, stories. A
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/72/1/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 1

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The abbot of the Monastery of Moville sent word to the story-tellers of Ireland that when they were in his neighbourhood they should call at the monastery, for he wished to collect and write down the stories which were in danger of being forgotten.

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**Who acts:** abbot, tellers, neighbourhood, stories · **What happens:** send, be, call, wish, collect, write down · **To what, where:** word, story tellers, neighbourhood, that, stories, danger · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (abbot, tellers, neighbourhood, stories), 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:pg2892:72:1
# text = The abbot of the Monastery of Moville sent word to the story-tellers of Ireland that when they were in his neighbourhood they should call at the monastery, for he wished to collect and write down the stories which were in danger of being forgotten.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	abbot	abbot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Monastery	Monastery	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Moville	Moville	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	tellers	teller	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	obj	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	neighbourhood	neighbourhood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	monastery	monastery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	collect	collect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	conj	_	_
38	down	down	ADP	RP	_	37	compound:prt	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obj	_	_
41	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	44	nsubj	_	_
42	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	cop	_	_
43	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	appos	_	_
45	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
46	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	47	aux:pass	_	_
47	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	44	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | the abbot of the Monastery of Moville | word |  | the story tellers of Ireland |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent word=Theme to teller=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | past | tellers *= teller* |  |  | abbot's neighbourhood |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **call** | should | abbot's neighbourhood | that |  |  |  | at the monastery | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme PP.recipient PP.stimulus»: agent=Agent that=Theme at monastery=Stimulus |
| 4 | **wish** | past | neighbourhood |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **collect** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | neighbourhood *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **write down** | infinitive | neighbourhood *not said here* | the stories |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Theme |
| 7 | **is** | past | the stories |  |  | danger |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **forget** | gerund · passive |  | danger *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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