---
title: For there were hatchetmen on guard in the big gateway, and there wer… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: For there were hatchetmen on guard in the big gateway, and there were spearmen at short intervals around the walls, and men to throw hot porridge off the roof were standing in the right places. Who acts: hatchetmen, spearmen, men. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIX, wit
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIX, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For there were hatchetmen on guard in the big gateway, and there were spearmen at short intervals around the walls, and men to throw hot porridge off the roof were standing in the right places.

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**Who acts:** hatchetmen, spearmen, men · **What happens:** be, throw, stand · **To what, where:** hot porridge, roof, right places

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIX. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hatchetmen, spearmen, men), 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:pg2892:90:3
# text = For there were hatchetmen on guard in the big gateway, and there were spearmen at short intervals around the walls, and men to throw hot porridge off the roof were standing in the right places.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
4	hatchetmen	hatchetmen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	guard	guard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	gateway	gateway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	14	expl	_	_
14	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	_
15	spearmen	spearmen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	intervals	interval	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	around	around	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
24	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	_
27	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	porridge	porridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	off	off	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | hatchetmen on guard in the big gateway |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | past | spearmen at short intervals around the walls |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **throw** | to-infinitive | men *not said here* | hot porridge |  | the roof |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent porridge=Theme off roof=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **stand** | past · progressive | men |  |  | the right places |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in place=Location |

<!-- .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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