---
title: “They are both good ways,” said Mac an Da’v, “and whichever of them… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “They are both good ways,” said Mac an Da’v, “and whichever of them you decide on I’ll stick by.” Who acts: men, good ways, Mac. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIX, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIX, sentence 5

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“They are both good ways,” said Mac an Da’v, “and whichever of them you decide on I’ll stick by.”

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**Who acts:** men, good ways, Mac · **What happens:** be, say, decide, stick by · **To what, where:** good ways · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (men, good ways, Mac), 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:pg2892:90:5
# text = “They are both good ways,” said Mac an Da’v, “and whichever of them you decide on I’ll stick by.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	both	both	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	Mac	Mac	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Da’v	Da'v	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	whichever	whichever	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	decide	decide	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
21	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’ll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	stick	stick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | men *= man* | good ways |  |  |  | both *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | good ways |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **decide** *in a quote* | present | Mac |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **stick by** *in a quote* | future | good ways *= way* |  |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent |

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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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