---
title: There would have been hours as long, when existence passed like a sh… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There would have been hours as long, when existence passed like a shade among shadows, in the multitudinous tappings of rain that dripped from leaf to leaf in the wood, and slipped so to the ground. Who acts: existence, multitudinous tappings, rain. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephen
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There would have been hours as long, when existence passed like a shade among shadows, in the multitudinous tappings of rain that dripped from leaf to leaf in the wood, and slipped so to the ground.

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**Who acts:** existence, multitudinous tappings, rain · **What happens:** have, be, pass, drip, slip, tap · **To what, where:** hours, multitudinous tappings, leaf

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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 (existence, multitudinous tappings, rain), 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:pg2892:14:22
# text = There would have been hours as long, when existence passed like a shade among shadows, in the multitudinous tappings of rain that dripped from leaf to leaf in the wood, and slipped so to the ground.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	cop	_	_
5	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
12	like	like	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	shade	shade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	among	among	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	multitudinous	multitudinous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	tappings	tapping	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	dripped	drip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
26	from	from	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	slipped	slip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
36	so	so	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | would |  |  |  | there |  | long *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | participle |  | hours |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **pass** | participle | existence |  |  | the multitudinous tappings of rain |  | like a shade among shadows | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in tapping=Location |
| 4 | **drip** | past | the multitudinous tappings of rain |  |  | leaf |  | to leaf; in the wood | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP.theme V PP.source»: agent=Theme from leaf=Source |
| 5 | **slip** | past | existence *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 6 | **tap** |  | rain |  |  |  |  |  | nom tapping «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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