---
title: But one night when Mongan seemed to speak with Duv Laca he mentioned… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But one night when Mongan seemed to speak with Duv Laca he mentioned her father as Fiachna Duv mac Demain, and the story-teller said that king had been dead for a vast number of years. Who acts: Mongan, story teller, king. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II. Said Cairide
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II. Said Cairide’:, sentence 15

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But one night when Mongan seemed to speak with Duv Laca he mentioned her father as Fiachna Duv mac Demain, and the story-teller said that king had been dead for a vast number of years.

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**Who acts:** Mongan, story teller, king · **What happens:** seem, speak, mention, say, be · **To what, where:** father · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II. Said Cairide’:. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mongan, story teller, king), 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:pg2892:73:15
# text = But one night when Mongan seemed to speak with Duv Laca he mentioned her father as Fiachna Duv mac Demain, and the story-teller said that king had been dead for a vast number of years.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
5	Mongan	Mongan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	Duv	Duv	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	Laca	Laca	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	mentioned	mention	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	Fiachna	Fiachna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
18	Duv	Duv	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	flat	_	_
19	mac	Mac	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	Demain	Demain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	teller	teller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	cop	_	_
32	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	ccomp	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | Mongan |  |  |  | night |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Mongan *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with Duv Laca | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with laca=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **mention** *speech: other* | past | Mongan | lament's father |  |  |  | as Fiachna mac Demain | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent father=Topic |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the story teller |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past · perfect | king |  |  |  |  | for a vast number of years; dead *property* | 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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