---
title: The waves held me back and held me back; the soft waters seemed to h… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The waves held me back and held me back; the soft waters seemed to have grown hard; and it was as though I were urging through a rock as I strained towards Ulster from the sea. Who acts: waves, soft waters, water, I. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IX, with its dependenc
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IX, sentence 13

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The waves held me back and held me back; the soft waters seemed to have grown hard; and it was as though I were urging through a rock as I strained towards Ulster from the sea.

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**Who acts:** waves, soft waters, water, I · **What happens:** hold back, seem, grow, urge, strain · **To what, where:** me, rock, sea

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IX. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (waves, soft waters, water, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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 {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2892:10:13
# text = The waves held me back and held me back; the soft waters seemed to have grown hard; and it was as though I were urging through a rock as I strained towards Ulster from the sea.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux	_	_
17	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	xcomp	_	_
18	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
24	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	urging	urge	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	xcomp	_	_
28	through	through	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	strained	strain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
34	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	Ulster	Ulster	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
36	from	from	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold back** | past | the waves | me |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 2 | **hold back** | past | the waves *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 3 | **seem** | past | the soft waters |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **grow** | to-infinitive · perfect | the soft waters *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **urge** | past · progressive | water |  |  | a rock |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **strain** | past | I |  |  | the sea |  | towards Ulster | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from sea=Source |

<!-- .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.

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**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.

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