---
title: Had nought but the chronicles been preserved the task would have bee… — Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. · tree and pragmatics
description: Had nought but the chronicles been preserved the task would have been simple. Who acts: task. A sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/2/8/)

<!-- 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/) / [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/) / [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., par…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/2/) / 8

# Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 2, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Had nought but the chronicles been preserved the task would have been simple.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** task · **What happens:** have, preserve, be · **To what, where:** nought, chronicles

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (task), 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:pg8109:2:8
# text = Had nought but the chronicles been preserved the task would have been simple.
1	Had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	nought	nought	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	1	obj	_	_
3	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	chronicles	chronicle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	preserved	preserve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	conj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
12	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	cop	_	_
13	simple	simple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  | nought |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nought=Patient |
| 2 | **preserve** | participle · passive |  | the chronicles |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **is** | would · perfect | the task |  |  |  |  | simple *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:** «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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/2/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/2/9/)
- ↑ back to [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/2/)