---
title: “There is nothing to frighten sheep like a dog,” said Mananna’n, “an… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “There is nothing to frighten sheep like a dog,” said Mananna’n, “and there is nothing to frighten these sheep like this dog.” Who acts: nothing, Mananna’n. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn, with its dependenc
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn, sentence 28

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“There is nothing to frighten sheep like a dog,” said Mananna’n, “and there is nothing to frighten these sheep like this dog.”

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**Who acts:** nothing, Mananna’n · **What happens:** be, frighten, say · **To what, where:** sheep · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nothing, Mananna’n), 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:pg2892:78:28
# text = “There is nothing to frighten sheep like a dog,” said Mananna’n, “and there is nothing to frighten these sheep like this dog.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	nsubj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	frighten	frighten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	Mananna’n	Mananna'n	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
20	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	nsubj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	frighten	frighten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl	_	_
23	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	24	det	_	_
24	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	det	_	_
27	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *in a quote* | present | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **frighten** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | nothing *not said here* | sheep |  |  |  | like a dog | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sheep=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Mananna’n |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* | present | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **frighten** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | nothing *not said here* | this sheep |  |  |  | like this dog | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sheep=Experiencer |

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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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