---
title: ‘Ofttimes for me they piled their shields and spears In Alba’s woods… — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Ofttimes for me they piled their shields and spears In Alba’s woods, roofing my winter bed: Thou man that build’st, this day, far down their biers, Be sure the spear and shield are nigh the head! Who acts: Ofttimes, Thou, spear, man. A sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ire
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/7/78/)

<!-- 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 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/7/) / 78

# The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age, Opening, part 7, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Ofttimes for me they piled their shields and spears In Alba’s woods, roofing my winter bed: Thou man that build’st, this day, far down their biers, Be sure the spear and shield are nigh the head!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Ofttimes, Thou, spear, man · **What happens:** pile, roof, man, be · **To what, where:** shields, woods, winter bed

<!-- .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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ofttimes, Thou, spear, man), 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:pg78491:7:78
# text = ‘Ofttimes for me they piled their shields and spears In Alba’s woods, roofing my winter bed: Thou man that build’st, this day, far down their biers, Be sure the spear and shield are nigh the head!
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ofttimes	ofttime	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nmod	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	piled	pile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	shields	shield	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
11	In	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	Alba	Alba	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	woods	wood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	roofing	roof	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
21	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	22	nsubj	_	_
22	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	build’st	build'st	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	det	_	_
27	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
30	down	down	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	biers	bier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	Be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	cop	_	_
35	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	shield	shield	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	conj	_	_
40	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
41	nigh	nigh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pile** | past | Ofttimes for me | Ofttimes's shields and spears |  | Alba's woods |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent shield=Theme in wood=Destination |
| 2 | **roof** | gerund | Ofttimes for me *not said here* | my winter bed |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent bed=Destination |
| 3 | **man** |  | Thou |  |  |  |  | build’st *acl* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | infinitive | the spear and shield |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | present | man and this day |  |  |  |  | Ofttimes's biers *nsubj*; the head *nsubj*; nigh *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/7/77/)
- next →: [sentence 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/7/79/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78491/7/)