---
title: It was pleasant to stand on a branch that swayed and sprung, and it… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was pleasant to stand on a branch that swayed and sprung, and it was good to stare at an impenetrable roof of leaves and then climb into it. Who acts: It, branch. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/15/17/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 17

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It was pleasant to stand on a branch that swayed and sprung, and it was good to stare at an impenetrable roof of leaves and then climb into it.

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**Who acts:** It, branch · **What happens:** be, stand, sway, spring, stare, climb · **To what, where:** branch, tree

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, branch), 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:pg2892:15:17
# text = It was pleasant to stand on a branch that swayed and sprung, and it was good to stare at an impenetrable roof of leaves and then climb into it.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	swayed	sway	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	sprung	spring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	stare	stare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	csubj	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	impenetrable	impenetrable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
28	climb	climb	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
29	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | pleasant *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | a branch |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on branch=Location |
| 3 | **sway** | past | a branch |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **spring** | participle | a branch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **stare** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | at a impenetrable roof of leaves | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at roof=Theme |
| 7 | **climb** | infinitive |  |  |  | tree | then |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into it=Destination |

<!-- .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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