---
title: When he looked down there was an undulating floor of leaves, green a… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When he looked down there was an undulating floor of leaves, green and green and greener to a very blackness of greeniness; and when he looked up there were leaves again, green and less green and not green at all, up to a very snow and blindness of greeniness; and above and below and around there wa
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/15/19/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 19

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When he looked down there was an undulating floor of leaves, green and green and greener to a very blackness of greeniness; and when he looked up there were leaves again, green and less green and not green at all, up to a very snow and blindness of greeniness; and above and below and around there was sway and motion, the whisper of leaf on leaf, and the eternal silence to which one listened and at which one tried to look.

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**Who acts:** One, sway, eternal silence · **What happens:** look down, be, undulate, look up, listen, try · **To what, where:** undulating floor, leaves, leaf

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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 (One, sway, eternal silence), 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:pg2892:15:19
# text = When he looked down there was an undulating floor of leaves, green and green and greener to a very blackness of greeniness; and when he looked up there were leaves again, green and less green and not green at all, up to a very snow and blindness of greeniness; and above and below and around there was sway and motion, the whisper of leaf on leaf, and the eternal silence to which one listened and at which one tried to look.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
4	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	undulating	undulate	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	amod	_	_
9	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	greener	green	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	conj	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	blackness	blackness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	greeniness	greeniness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
29	up	up	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	advmod	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
33	again	again	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
37	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	38	amod	_	_
38	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	conj	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
40	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	41	advmod	_	_
41	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	conj	_	_
42	at	at	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
45	up	up	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
46	to	to	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
47	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
48	very	very	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
49	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	parataxis	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	blindness	blindness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	conj	_	_
52	of	of	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	greeniness	greeniness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	56	punct	_	_
55	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
56	above	above	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
57	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
58	below	below	ADV	RB	_	56	conj	_	_
59	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	60	cc	_	_
60	around	around	ADV	RB	_	56	conj	_	_
61	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	62	expl	_	_
62	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	60	advcl	_	_
63	sway	sway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	nsubj	_	_
64	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	65	cc	_	_
65	motion	motion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	68	punct	_	_
67	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	68	det	_	_
68	whisper	whisper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	conj	_	_
69	of	of	ADP	IN	_	70	case	_	_
70	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	68	nmod	_	_
71	on	on	ADP	IN	_	72	case	_	_
72	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	70	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
73	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	81	punct	_	_
74	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	81	cc	_	_
75	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	77	det	_	_
76	eternal	eternal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	77	amod	_	_
77	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	81	nsubj	_	_
78	to	to	ADP	IN	_	80	case	_	_
79	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	80	det	_	_
80	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	77	nmod	_	_
81	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
82	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	86	cc	_	_
83	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	86	mark	_	_
84	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	85	det	_	_
85	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	86	nsubj	_	_
86	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	81	conj	_	_
87	to	to	PART	TO	_	88	mark	_	_
88	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	86	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
89	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look down** | past | One | a undulating floor of leaves |  |  |  | down *property* | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme floor=Attribute |
| 2 | **be** | past | One *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **undulate** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **look up** | past | One |  |  |  |  | above *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is a** | past |  | leaves |  | there | again |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **be** | past | sway and motion and the whisper of leaf on leaf |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **listen** | past | the eternal silence to which one |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **try** | past | which one |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 10 | **look** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | which one *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 11 | **whisper** |  |  | leaf on leaf |  |  |  |  | nom whisper «communication 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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