---
title: The clerk began to bless himself, and then Tibraide’ began to bless… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The clerk began to bless himself, and then Tibraide’ began to bless himself, and after that they didn’t know what to do. Who acts: clerk, Tibraide, men. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/86/25/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XV, sentence 25

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The clerk began to bless himself, and then Tibraide’ began to bless himself, and after that they didn’t know what to do.

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**Who acts:** clerk, Tibraide, men · **What happens:** begin, bless, not know, do · **To what, where:** clerk · **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 (clerk, Tibraide, men), 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:pg2892:86:25
# text = The clerk began to bless himself, and then Tibraide’ began to bless himself, and after that they didn’t know what to do.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	clerk	clerk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	bless	bless	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
10	Tibraide	Tibraide	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
12	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	bless	bless	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
24	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	26	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the clerk |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **bless** | to-infinitive | the clerk *not said here* | clerk |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 3 | **begin** | past | Tibraide |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **bless** | to-infinitive | Tibraide *not said here* | clerk |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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