---
title: The flies change from second to second; one cannot tell if this bird… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The flies change from second to second; one cannot tell if this bird is a visitor or an inhabitant, and a sheep is just sister to a sheep; but the women were as rooted as the house itself. Who acts: flies, one, bird, sheep. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dep
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The flies change from second to second; one cannot tell if this bird is a visitor or an inhabitant, and a sheep is just sister to a sheep; but the women were as rooted as the house itself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** flies, one, bird, sheep · **What happens:** change, not tell, be, root · **To what, where:** visitor, sister, women · **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 (flies, one, bird, sheep), 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:pg2892:14:38
# text = The flies change from second to second; one cannot tell if this bird is a visitor or an inhabitant, and a sheep is just sister to a sheep; but the women were as rooted as the house itself.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	change	change	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	second	second	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	second	second	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nsubj	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
15	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	visitor	visitor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	inhabitant	inhabitant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	just	just	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux:pass	_	_
37	as	as	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	rooted	root	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
39	as	as	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
42	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	41	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | present | the flies |  |  |  | second |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | can | one |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | this bird | a visitor or a inhabitant |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | present | a sheep | sister |  |  |  | to a sheep | tree rules |
| 5 | **root** | past · passive |  | the women |  |  |  | as the house  sheep | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=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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