---
title: He got a grudging commendation from the terrible women when he was a… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He got a grudging commendation from the terrible women when he was able to slip noiselessly in the tide, swim under water to where a wild duck was floating and grip it by the leg. Who acts: Fionn, wild duck. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV, with its dependency tree an
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He got a grudging commendation from the terrible women when he was able to slip noiselessly in the tide, swim under water to where a wild duck was floating and grip it by the leg.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Fionn, wild duck · **What happens:** get, be, slip, swim, float, grip · **To what, where:** grudging commendation, water, duck

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fionn, wild duck), 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:pg2892:17:31
# text = He got a grudging commendation from the terrible women when he was able to slip noiselessly in the tide, swim under water to where a wild duck was floating and grip it by the leg.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	grudging	grudging	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	commendation	commendation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	slip	slip	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	noiselessly	noiselessly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	tide	tide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
22	under	under	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
24	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
25	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	30	advmod	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	floating	float	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	grip	grip	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	by	by	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | Fionn | a grudging commendation |  |  |  | from the terrible women | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent commendation=Theme from woman=Source |
| 2 | **is** | past | Fionn |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **slip** | to-infinitive | Fionn *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in the tide; noiselessly *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in tide=Attribute |
| 4 | **swim** | infinitive | Fionn *not said here* |  |  | water |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme under water=Trajectory |
| 5 | **float** | past · progressive | a wild duck |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **grip** | present | a wild duck *not said here* | duck |  |  |  | by the leg | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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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- ↑ back to [Chapter IV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/17/)