---
title: The tomb, by the way, was a rath--again showing the ethnic character… — Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. · tree and pragmatics
description: The tomb, by the way, was a rath--again showing the ethnic character of the alphabet. Who acts: tomb, rath. A sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 6, sentence 9

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The tomb, by the way, was a rath--again showing the ethnic character of the alphabet.

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**Who acts:** tomb, rath · **What happens:** be, show · **To what, where:** rath, ethnic character

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This is a sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tomb, rath), 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:pg8109:6:9
# text = The tomb, by the way, was a rath--again showing the ethnic character of the alphabet.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	tomb	tomb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	rath	rath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	again	again	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	showing	show	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	ethnic	ethnic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	alphabet	alphabet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the tomb and the way | a rath |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **show** | gerund | a rath *not said here* | the ethnic character of the alphabet |  |  | again |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent character=Recipient |

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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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