---
title: When and how a knowledge of letters reached this island we know not. — Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. · tree and pragmatics
description: When and how a knowledge of letters reached this island we know not. Who acts: knowledge, we. A sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5, 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/pg8109/5/79/)

<!-- 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/pg8109/5/) / 79

# Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5, sentence 79

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When and how a knowledge of letters reached this island we know not.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** knowledge, we · **What happens:** reach, not know · **To what, where:** island

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knowledge, we), 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:pg8109:5:79
# text = When and how a knowledge of letters reached this island we know not.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
3	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
8	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | a knowledge of letters | this island |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent island=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **know** | present | we | this island *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer island=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/78/)
- next →: [sentence 80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/80/)
- ↑ back to [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/)