Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn, sentence 33

He went forward, at first, with a slow waddle, and as the venomous sheep came to meet him in bounces, he then went to meet them in wriggles; so that in a while he went so fast that you could see nothing of him but a head and a wriggle.

Who acts: Mananna’n, you · What happens: go, come, meet, bounce, see · To what, where: Mananna’n, sheep, wriggles, nothing

This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mananna’n, you), 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	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 went	nsubj
2	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	forward	forward	ADV	_	2 went	advmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 first	punct
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 first	case
6	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	2 went	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 waddle	punct
8	with	with	ADP	_	11 waddle	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 waddle	det
10	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 waddle	amod
11	waddle	waddle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 went	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 came	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 came	cc
14	as	as	ADP	_	17 sheep	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 sheep	det
16	venomous	venomous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 sheep	amod
17	sheep	sheep	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 came	obl
18	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 went	parataxis
19	to	to	PART	_	20 meet	mark
20	meet	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	18 came	xcomp
21	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 meet	obj
22	in	in	SCONJ	_	23 bounces	mark
23	bounces	bounce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 meet	advcl
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 went	punct
25	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 went	nsubj
26	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	27 went	advmod
27	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 came	conj
28	to	to	PART	_	29 meet	mark
29	meet	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	27 went	xcomp
30	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 meet	obj
31	in	in	ADP	_	32 wriggles	case
32	wriggles	wriggle	NOUN	Number=Plur	29 meet	obl
33	;	;	PUNCT	_	40 went	punct
34	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	40 went	mark
35	that	that	SCONJ	_	34 so	fixed
36	in	in	ADP	_	38 while	case
37	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	38 while	det
38	while	while	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 went	obl
39	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 went	nsubj
40	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 went	parataxis
41	so	so	ADV	_	42 fast	advmod
42	fast	fast	ADV	Degree=Pos	40 went	advmod
43	that	that	SCONJ	_	46 see	mark
44	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	46 see	nsubj
45	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	46 see	aux
46	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	40 went	advcl
47	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	46 see	obj
48	of	of	ADP	_	49 him	case
49	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	47 nothing	nmod
50	but	but	CCONJ	_	52 head	cc
51	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	52 head	det
52	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 nothing	conj
53	and	and	CCONJ	_	55 wriggle	cc
54	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	55 wriggle	det
55	wriggle	wriggle	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 nothing	conj
56	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 went	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	Mananna’n = mananna'n				with a slow waddle; first, forward property	vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent with waddle=Beneficiary
2	come	past					as the venomous sheep	tree rules
3	meet	to-infinitive		Mananna’n = mananna'n				vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Co-Agent
4	bounce	present						vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	go	past	Mananna’n = mananna'n			then		vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
6	meet	to-infinitive	Mananna’n = mananna'n not said here	sheep	wriggles			vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Co-Agent
7	go	past	Mananna’n = mananna'n			while	fast property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
8	see	could	you	nothing				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus

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/pg2892/78/33/