---
title: But the Christians could never have imagined their saints to have be… — Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Christians could never have imagined their saints to have been anything but men--a fact which caused the retention and preservation of the relics. Who acts: fact. A sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Firbolgs and Third Cycle of the Fomoroh., with its depende
---

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# Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., Firbolgs and Third Cycle of the Fomoroh., sentence 178

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But the Christians could never have imagined their saints to have been anything but men--a fact which caused the retention and preservation of the relics.

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**Who acts:** fact · **What happens:** not imagine, be, cause, preserve · **To what, where:** Christians, anything, retention, relics

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This is a sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Firbolgs and Third Cycle of the Fomoroh.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fact), 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:pg8109:10:178
# text = But the Christians could never have imagined their saints to have been anything but men--a fact which caused the retention and preservation of the relics.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Christians	Christian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
7	imagined	imagine	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	saints	saint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
12	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	cop	_	_
13	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	7	advcl	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	retention	retention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	preservation	preservation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	relics	relic	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **imagine** | could · perfect · passive |  | the Christians |  |  |  | Christians's saints *obj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive · perfect |  | anything |  |  |  | men *conj*; a fact *conj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **cause** | past | a fact | the retention and preservation of the relics |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition retention=Patient |
| 4 | **preserve** |  |  | the relics |  |  |  |  | nom preservation «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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:** «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Project Gutenberg book 8109 (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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