---
title: He spake these words alone: ‘My father!--Spare him!’ — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: He spake these words alone: ‘My father!--Spare him!’ Who acts: Had. A sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 15, 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 15, sentence 173

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He spake these words alone: ‘My father!--Spare him!’

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**Who acts:** Had · **What happens:** speak, spare · **To what, where:** words, Had · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Had), 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:pg78491:15:175
# text = He spake these words alone: ‘My father!--Spare him!’
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spake	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
7	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Had | this words |  |  |  | My father *parataxis*; alone *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **spare** | infinitive | Had *not said here* | Had |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent he=Asset |

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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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