---
title: Greater by far do we prefer to go home to our father and tell the de… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Greater by far do we prefer to go home to our father and tell the deeds of heroism we have done, than accept anything on these terms from you. Who acts: we. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of Deirdre, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story of Deirdre, sentence 160

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Greater by far do we prefer to go home to our father and tell the deeds of heroism we have done, than accept anything on these terms from you.

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** prefer, go, tell, do, accept · **To what, where:** deeds, heroism, anything, terms · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of Deirdre. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg7885:13:160
# text = Greater by far do we prefer to go home to our father and tell the deeds of heroism we have done, than accept anything on these terms from you.
1	Greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
2	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
4	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	prefer	prefer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	advcl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	home	home	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	deeds	deed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	heroism	heroism	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	accept	accept	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
25	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obj	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
28	terms	term	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prefer** | present · do-support | we |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to our father; home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to father=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | we *not said here* | the deeds of heroism |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent deed=Recipient |
| 4 | **do** | present · perfect | we | heroism *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heroism=Eventuality |
| 5 | **accept** | infinitive | we *not said here* | anything |  | this terms |  | from you | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent anything=Theme from you=Source |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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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