---
title: He would not listen to a harp if he could hear her speak, for she wa… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He would not listen to a harp if he could hear her speak, for she was the delight of ages, the gem of time, and the wonder of the world till Doom. Who acts: Laca, Mongan. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIII, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He would not listen to a harp if he could hear her speak, for she was the delight of ages, the gem of time, and the wonder of the world till Doom.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Laca, Mongan · **What happens:** not listen, hear, speak, be, wonder · **To what, where:** Mongan, world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Laca, Mongan), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2892:84:10
# text = He would not listen to a harp if he could hear her speak, for she was the delight of ages, the gem of time, and the wonder of the world till Doom.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	harp	harp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	delight	delight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	ages	age	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	gem	gem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	parataxis	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
34	till	till	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	Doom	doom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **listen** | would | Laca |  |  |  |  | to a harp | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to harp=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | Laca | Mongan |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | infinitive | Mongan *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | Mongan |  |  |  | of ages | for the delight | tree rules |
| 5 | **wonder** |  |  | the world |  |  | till Doom |  | nom wonder «feeling transitive»: of=patient till=obl |

<!-- .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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