---
title: Before he had well said it messengers were going from the palace in… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Before he had well said it messengers were going from the palace in all directions looking for such a cow. Who acts: king, medicine, directions. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. Said Mongan:, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V. Said Mongan:, sentence 10

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Before he had well said it messengers were going from the palace in all directions looking for such a cow.

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**Who acts:** king, medicine, directions · **What happens:** say, messenger, be, go, look · **To what, where:** palace · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. Said Mongan:. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, medicine, directions), 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:pg2892:76:10
# text = Before he had well said it messengers were going from the palace in all directions looking for such a cow.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	messengers	messenger	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
9	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	xcomp	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	directions	direction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
16	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	20	det:predet	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	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 · perfect | king |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **messenger** | present | medicine |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | past | medicine *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | gerund | medicine *not said here* |  |  | the palace in all directions |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme from palace=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **look** | gerund | all directions *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for such cow | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for cow=Theme |

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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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