---
title: I played on breaths Above the horses’ steam: There used to be broken… — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: I played on breaths Above the horses’ steam: There used to be broken before me Great battles on every side: Who acts: I. 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 every clause
---

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# The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age, Opening, part 1, sentence 120

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I played on breaths Above the horses’ steam: There used to be broken before me Great battles on every side:

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** play, use, break · **To what, where:** breaths, Great battles

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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 (I), 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:pg78491:1:124
# text = I played on breaths Above the horses’ steam: There used to be broken before me Great battles on every side:
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	breaths	breath	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	Above	above	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	steam	steam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	12	expl	_	_
12	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	xcomp	_	_
16	before	before	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	Great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	battles	battle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past | I |  |  | breaths |  | above the horses's steam | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **use** | past | I *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **break** | to-infinitive · passive | I *not said here* |  |  | Great battles  me on every side |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: before battle=Location |

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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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