---
title: A solemn-nosed, stern-eyed cow would amble and stamp in his wood to… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A solemn-nosed, stern-eyed cow would amble and stamp in his wood to find a flyless shadow; or a strayed sheep would poke its gentle muzzle through leaves. Who acts: nosed eyed cow, strayed sheep. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 31

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A solemn-nosed, stern-eyed cow would amble and stamp in his wood to find a flyless shadow; or a strayed sheep would poke its gentle muzzle through leaves.

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**Who acts:** nosed eyed cow, strayed sheep · **What happens:** nose, amble, stamp, find, stray, poke · **To what, where:** wood, flyless shadow, gentle muzzle

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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 (nosed eyed cow, strayed sheep), 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:pg2892:14:31
# text = A solemn-nosed, stern-eyed cow would amble and stamp in his wood to find a flyless shadow; or a strayed sheep would poke its gentle muzzle through leaves.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
2	solemn	solemn	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	nosed	nose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	stern	stern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	eyed	eyed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	amble	amble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	stamp	stamp	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	flyless	flyless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	strayed	stray	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	amod	_	_
26	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	poke	poke	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
29	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	muzzle	muzzle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	through	through	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **nose** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **amble** | would | a nosed eyed cow |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **stamp** | infinitive | a nosed eyed cow *not said here* |  |  | existence's wood |  |  | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme PP.destination»: agent=Agent in wood=Destination |
| 4 | **find** | to-infinitive | a nosed eyed cow *not said here* | a flyless shadow |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shadow=Topic |
| 5 | **stray** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **poke** | would | a strayed sheep | sheep's gentle muzzle |  |  |  | through leaves | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.patient»: agent=Agent muzzle=Instrument through leaf=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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