Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIV, sentence 29
His eyes went black, his mind whirled and ceased, there came nothingness where he had been, and as the Birgha whistled into his shoulder-blades he withered away, he tumbled emptily and was dead.
Who acts: eyes, mind, Fionn · What happens: go, whirl, cease, come, whistle, wither away · To what, where: nothingness, shoulder blades
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyes, mind, Fionn), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
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
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | His | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 eyes | nmod:poss |
| 2 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 went | nsubj |
| 3 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | black | black | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 went | xcomp |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 whirled | punct |
| 6 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 mind | nmod:poss |
| 7 | mind | mind | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 whirled | nsubj |
| 8 | whirled | whirl | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | parataxis |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 ceased | cc |
| 10 | ceased | cease | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 whirled | conj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 came | punct |
| 12 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 13 came | expl |
| 13 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | parataxis |
| 14 | nothingness | nothingness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 came | obj |
| 15 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 18 been | advmod |
| 16 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 been | nsubj |
| 17 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 been | aux |
| 18 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 14 nothingness | acl:relcl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 whistled | punct |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 whistled | cc |
| 21 | as | as | ADP | _ | 23 Birgha | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 Birgha | det |
| 23 | Birgha | Birgha | PROPN | Number=Sing | 24 whistled | obl |
| 24 | whistled | whistle | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 came | conj |
| 25 | into | into | ADP | _ | 29 blades | case |
| 26 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 29 blades | nmod:poss |
| 27 | shoulder | shoulder | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 blades | compound |
| 28 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 27 shoulder | punct |
| 29 | blades | blade | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 whistled | obl |
| 30 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 withered | nsubj |
| 31 | withered | wither | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 blades | acl:relcl |
| 32 | away | away | ADV | _ | 31 withered | advmod |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 tumbled | punct |
| 34 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 tumbled | nsubj |
| 35 | tumbled | tumble | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | parataxis |
| 36 | emptily | emptily | ADV | _ | 35 tumbled | advmod |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 dead | cc |
| 38 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 39 dead | cop |
| 39 | dead | dead | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 tumbled | conj |
| 40 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | Fionn's eyes | black property | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | whirl | past | Fionn's mind | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | cease | past | Fionn's mind not said here | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | |||||
| 4 | come | past | nothingness | there | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location nothingness=Theme | ||||
| 5 | whistle | past | Fionn's shoulder blades | as the Birgha | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent into blade=Recipient | ||||
| 6 | wither away | past | Fionn | Fionn's shoulder blades not said here | away property | tree rules | |||
| 7 | tumble | past | Fionn | emptily property | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | ||||
| 8 | is | past | Fionn not said here | dead property | tree rules | ||||
| 9 | mind | Fionn | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
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.
Text: «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Project Gutenberg book 2892 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/27/29/