---
title: Twenty years High up they fought; to each side Erin’s birds Flocking… — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: Twenty years High up they fought; to each side Erin’s birds Flocking in clans, the factions of the heavens. Who acts: kings, birds. A sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/14/67/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The foray of Queen Meave, and other le…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/) / [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/14/) / 67

# The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age, Opening, part 14, sentence 67

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Twenty years High up they fought; to each side Erin’s birds Flocking in clans, the factions of the heavens.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** kings, birds · **What happens:** fight, flock · **To what, where:** clans

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (kings, birds), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78491:14:69
# text = Twenty years High up they fought; to each side Erin’s birds Flocking in clans, the factions of the heavens.
1	Twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	High	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	Erin	Erin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’s	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
14	Flocking	flock	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	clans	clan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	factions	faction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	heavens	heaven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | past | kings *= king* |  |  |  |  | to each side  Erin's birds and the factions of the heavens | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **flock** | gerund | Erin's birds and the factions of the heavens *not said here* |  |  | clans |  |  | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/14/66/)
- next →: [sentence 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/14/68/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/14/)