---
title: He would have known little snaky paths, narrow enough to be filled b… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He would have known little snaky paths, narrow enough to be filled by his own small feet, or a goat’s; and he would have wondered where they went, and have marvelled again to find that, wherever they went, they came at last, through loops and twists of the branchy wood, to his own door. Who acts: ow
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 23

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He would have known little snaky paths, narrow enough to be filled by his own small feet, or a goat’s; and he would have wondered where they went, and have marvelled again to find that, wherever they went, they came at last, through loops and twists of the branchy wood, to his own door.

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**Who acts:** own small feet, existence, paths · **What happens:** know, fill, wonder, go, marvell, find · **To what, where:** existence, that, last, branchy wood

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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 (own small feet, existence, paths), 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:pg2892:14:23
# text = He would have known little snaky paths, narrow enough to be filled by his own small feet, or a goat’s; and he would have wondered where they went, and have marvelled again to find that, wherever they went, they came at last, through loops and twists of the branchy wood, to his own door.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	snaky	snaky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	paths	path	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
10	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	filled	fill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
16	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux	_	_
29	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
30	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	32	advmod	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux	_	_
36	marvelled	marvell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
37	again	again	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	advcl	_	_
40	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
42	wherever	wherever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	44	advmod	_	_
43	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	conj	_	_
48	at	at	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
51	through	through	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	loops	loop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obl	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	twists	twist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	conj	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
56	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
57	branchy	branchy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	58	amod	_	_
58	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	63	punct	_	_
60	to	to	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
61	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	63	nmod:poss	_	_
62	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	63	amod	_	_
63	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | would · perfect · passive |  | existence |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fill** | to-infinitive · passive | existence's own small feet |  |  |  |  | 's a goat | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | would · perfect | existence |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **go** | past | paths *= path* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **marvell** | infinitive · perfect |  |  |  |  | again |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **find** | to-infinitive |  | that |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Topic |
| 7 | **go** | past | paths *= path* |  |  |  |  | wherever *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **come** | past | paths *= path* |  |  | last |  | through loops and twists of the branchy wood; to existence's own door | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme through loop=Initial\_Location to door=Destination |
| 9 | **twist** |  |  | the branchy wood |  |  |  |  | nom twist «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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