---
title: By degrees the clergy took an interest in the ancient tales, and bec… — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: By degrees the clergy took an interest in the ancient tales, and became attached to what they befriended. Who acts: clergy, degrees. A sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age, Opening, part 1, sentence 114

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By degrees the clergy took an interest in the ancient tales, and became attached to what they befriended.

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**Who acts:** clergy, degrees · **What happens:** take, become, attach, befriend · **To what, where:** interest, ancient tales

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This is a sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (clergy, degrees), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78491:1:118
# text = By degrees the clergy took an interest in the ancient tales, and became attached to what they befriended.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	degrees	degree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	clergy	clergy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	interest	interest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	attached	attach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	xcomp	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	obl	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	befriended	befriend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the clergy | a interest |  | the ancient tales |  | by degrees | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent interest=Value in tale=Location |
| 2 | **become** | past | the clergy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **attach** | participle | the clergy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | what *obl* | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent to what=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **befriend** | past | degrees *= degree* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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:** «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Project Gutenberg book 78491 (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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