---
title: “When the king says he loves you, ask him to prove it by gifts; ask… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “When the king says he loves you, ask him to prove it by gifts; ask for his drinking-horn first.” Who acts: king, you. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XX, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XX, sentence 11

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“When the king says he loves you, ask him to prove it by gifts; ask for his drinking-horn first.”

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**Who acts:** king, you · **What happens:** say, love, ask, prove · **To what, where:** you, King, whispering · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XX. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, you), 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:pg2892:91:11
# text = “When the king says he loves you, ask him to prove it by gifts; ask for his drinking-horn first.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	loves	love	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
10	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	gifts	gift	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
18	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
21	drinking	drinking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	horn	horn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
24	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **love** *in a quote* | present | King | you |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer you=Stimulus |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* |  | King |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **prove** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | whispering |  |  |  | by gifts | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for King's drinking horn; first *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: 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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- ↑ back to [Chapter XX](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/91/)