---
title: And then mac an Da’v began to sneeze, for he didn’t know what for. — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And then mac an Da’v began to sneeze, for he didn’t know what for. Who acts: you, Da’v. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XVI. They met him near the place where the games were played, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XVI. They met him near the place where the games were played, sentence 5

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And then mac an Da’v began to sneeze, for he didn’t know what for.

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**Who acts:** you, Da’v · **What happens:** mac, begin, sneeze, not know

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XVI. They met him near the place where the games were played. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, Da’v), 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:pg2892:87:5
# text = And then mac an Da’v began to sneeze, for he didn’t know what for.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	mac	mac	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Da’v	Da'v	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	sneeze	sneeze	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mac** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | a Da’v |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **sneeze** | to-infinitive | a Da’v *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | Da’v *= da'v* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |

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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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