---
title: They saw the food they put into his little frame reproduce itself le… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They saw the food they put into his little frame reproduce itself length-ways and sideways in tough inches, and in springs and energies that crawled at first, and then toddled, and then ran. Who acts: eyes, food, springs. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its depen
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 19

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They saw the food they put into his little frame reproduce itself length-ways and sideways in tough inches, and in springs and energies that crawled at first, and then toddled, and then ran.

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**Who acts:** eyes, food, springs · **What happens:** see, put, reproduce, crawl, toddle, run · **To what, where:** little frame, food · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyes, food, springs), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2892:14:19
# text = They saw the food they put into his little frame reproduce itself length-ways and sideways in tough inches, and in springs and energies that crawled at first, and then toddled, and then ran.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	frame	frame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	reproduce	reproduce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
12	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sideways	sideway	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	tough	tough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	inches	inch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	springs	spring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	energies	energy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	crawled	crawl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	34	advmod	_	_
34	toddled	toddle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
37	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	38	advmod	_	_
38	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  | spring |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **put** | past | the food |  |  | life's little frame |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **reproduce** | infinitive | the food *not said here* | food |  |  |  | length ways and sideways in tough inches *obl* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent itself=Patient |
| 4 | **crawl** | past | springs and energies |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at first=Trajectory |
| 5 | **toddle** | past |  |  |  |  | then |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **run** | past |  |  |  |  | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/14/18/)
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- ↑ back to [Chapter I](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/14/)