---
title: “Alas!” said the king, and he smote his hands together, and then he… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Alas!” said the king, and he smote his hands together, and then he beat them on his head, and then he looked at them and at everything about, and he could not tell what anything was or where anything was, for his mind was clouded and his wits had gone astray. Who acts: king, wits. A sentence of «Ir
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XII, sentence 26

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“Alas!” said the king, and he smote his hands together, and then he beat them on his head, and then he looked at them and at everything about, and he could not tell what anything was or where anything was, for his mind was clouded and his wits had gone astray.

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**Who acts:** king, wits · **What happens:** say, smite, beat, look, not tell, cloud · **To what, where:** hands, Duv, anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, wits), 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:pg2892:83:26
# text = “Alas!” said the king, and he smote his hands together, and then he beat them on his head, and then he looked at them and at everything about, and he could not tell what anything was or where anything was, for his mind was clouded and his wits had gone astray.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	smote	smite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	together	together	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	30	conj	_	_
34	about	about	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
38	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
39	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
40	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
41	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	53	obj	_	_
42	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	53	nsubj:pass	_	_
43	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	aux:pass	_	_
44	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
45	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	53	advmod	_	_
46	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	53	nsubj:pass	_	_
47	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	aux:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
49	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
50	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	51	nmod:poss	_	_
51	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nsubj:pass	_	_
52	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	aux:pass	_	_
53	clouded	cloud	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	40	ccomp	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
55	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nmod:poss	_	_
56	wits	wit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	58	nsubj	_	_
57	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
58	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	53	conj	_	_
59	astray	astray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	58	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **smite** | past | King | King's hands |  |  |  | together *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus hand=Experiencer |
| 3 | **beat** | past | King | Duv |  |  | then | on King's head | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent they=Instrument on head=Patient |
| 4 | **look** | past | King |  |  |  | then | at Duv; about *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **cloud** | past · passive |  | anything |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **go** | past · perfect | King's wits |  |  |  |  | astray *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **mind** |  | King |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition 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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