---
title: “I can’t make out a word of the language except that the man behind… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I can’t make out a word of the language except that the man behind says amen, amen, every time the man in front puts a grunt out of him. Who acts: Mananna’n, man. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XV, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I can’t make out a word of the language except that the man behind says amen, amen, every time the man in front puts a grunt out of him.

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**Who acts:** Mananna’n, man · **What happens:** not make out, say, put, word · **To what, where:** word, amen, grunt, language · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mananna’n, man), 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:pg2892:86:18
# text = “I can’t make out a word of the language except that the man behind says amen, amen, every time the man in front puts a grunt out of him.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	except	except	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	fixed	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
16	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	amen	amen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	amen	amen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	det	_	_
23	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl:unmarked	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	puts	put	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	grunt	grunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	out	out	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **make out** *in a quote* | can | Mananna’n *= mananna'n* | a word of the language except the man |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | the man *not said here* | amen and amen |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent amen=Topic |
| 3 | **put** *in a quote* | present | the man in front | a grunt |  |  | time | out Mananna’n *= mananna'n* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent grunt=Theme out he=Destination |
| 4 | **word** *in a quote* |  |  | the language except the man |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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