---
title: Cuchullain is my friend: Better I died than he!’ — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: Cuchullain is my friend: Better I died than he!’ Who acts: Cuchullain, I. A sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 13, 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 13, sentence 20

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Cuchullain is my friend: Better I died than he!’

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**Who acts:** Cuchullain, I · **What happens:** be, die · **To what, where:** friend

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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 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cuchullain, 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:pg78491:13:22
# text = Cuchullain is my friend: Better I died than he!’
1	Cuchullain	Cuchullain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
6	Better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	conj	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Cuchullain | my friend |  |  |  | my *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | Cuchullain *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **die** | past | I | my friend *not said here* |  |  |  | than Cuchullain | 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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