---
title: “These,” said the King of Leinster, “are the most beautiful cows in… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “These,” said the King of Leinster, “are the most beautiful cows in Ireland, and,” he continued thoughtfully, “Duv Laca is the most beautiful woman in Ireland.” Who acts: These, Mongan, Duv Laca. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter X, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter X, sentence 24

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“These,” said the King of Leinster, “are the most beautiful cows in Ireland, and,” he continued thoughtfully, “Duv Laca is the most beautiful woman in Ireland.”

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**Who acts:** These, Mongan, Duv Laca · **What happens:** say, be, continue · **To what, where:** beautiful cows, Ireland, beautiful woman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter X. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (These, Mongan, Duv Laca), 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:pg2892:81:24
# text = “These,” said the King of Leinster, “are the most beautiful cows in Ireland, and,” he continued thoughtfully, “Duv Laca is the most beautiful woman in Ireland.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	These	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Leinster	Leinster	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	15	advmod	_	_
15	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
25	thoughtfully	thoughtfully	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
27	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Duv	Duv	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	Laca	Laca	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
30	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
32	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	33	advmod	_	_
33	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | These |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the beautiful cows |  | Ireland |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **continue** | past | Mongan |  |  |  |  | thoughtfully *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | Duv Laca | the beautiful woman |  | Ireland |  |  | 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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