---
title: “That will happen when pigs fly,” said mac an Da’v, “and,” said he,… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “That will happen when pigs fly,” said mac an Da’v, “and,” said he, “I did not make any bargain with any king that is in the world.” Who acts: That, pigs, King. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XVIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XVIII, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“That will happen when pigs fly,” said mac an Da’v, “and,” said he, “I did not make any bargain with any king that is in the world.”

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**Who acts:** That, pigs, King · **What happens:** happen, fly, mac, say, not make, be · **To what, where:** Da’v, bargain, world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XVIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (That, pigs, King), 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:pg2892:89:43
# text = “That will happen when pigs fly,” said mac an Da’v, “and,” said he, “I did not make any bargain with any king that is in the world.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
5	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
6	pigs	pig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	fly	fly	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	mac	mac	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Da’v	Da'v	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
27	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
28	bargain	bargain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	det	_	_
31	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	nsubj	_	_
33	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** *in a quote* | future | That |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fly** *in a quote* | present | pigs |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **mac** | past |  | a Da’v |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **make** *in a quote* | past · do-support | King | any bargain |  |  |  | with any king | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bargain=Product |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present | any king |  |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/89/42/)
- next →: [sentence 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/89/44/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter XVIII](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/89/)