---
title: He said that his name was Cairide’, and that he had a story to tell… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He said that his name was Cairide’, and that he had a story to tell which could not be bettered among the stories of Ireland. Who acts: neighbourhood, name, stories. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 9

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He said that his name was Cairide’, and that he had a story to tell which could not be bettered among the stories of Ireland.

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**Who acts:** neighbourhood, name, stories · **What happens:** say, be, have, tell, not better, name · **To what, where:** Cairide, story · **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 (neighbourhood, name, 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:pg2892:72:9
# text = He said that his name was Cairide’, and that he had a story to tell which could not be bettered among the stories of Ireland.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	Cairide	Cairide	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	bettered	better	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	ccomp	_	_
23	among	among	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl:agent	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | neighbourhood |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | neighbourhood's name | Cairide |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | neighbourhood | a story |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Patient |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | neighbourhood *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **better** | could · passive | the stories of Ireland |  |  |  |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Theme |
| 6 | **name** |  | neighbourhood |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication 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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