---
title: After a while he could buzz around a tree like a maddened fly, and o… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: After a while he could buzz around a tree like a maddened fly, and oh, the joy, when he felt himself drawing from the switch and gaining from behind on its bearer! Who acts: Fionn. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 8

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After a while he could buzz around a tree like a maddened fly, and oh, the joy, when he felt himself drawing from the switch and gaining from behind on its bearer!

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**Who acts:** Fionn · **What happens:** buzz, madden, feel, draw, gain · **To what, where:** joy, tree, Fionn, bearer

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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), 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:pg2892:17:8
# text = After a while he could buzz around a tree like a maddened fly, and oh, the joy, when he felt himself drawing from the switch and gaining from behind on its bearer!
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	buzz	buzz	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	around	around	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	maddened	madden	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	amod	_	_
13	fly	fly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	19	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
24	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	obj	_	_
25	drawing	draw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
26	from	from	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	switch	switch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	gaining	gain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	conj	_	_
31	from	from	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	30	obl	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	bearer	bearer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **buzz** | could | Fionn | the joy |  | a tree like a maddened fly | while |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme around tree=Location |
| 2 | **madden** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **feel** | past | Fionn | Fionn |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 4 | **draw** | gerund | Fionn *not said here* |  |  |  |  | from the switch | vn split-23.2 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient from switch=Co-Patient |
| 5 | **gain** | gerund | Fionn *not said here* |  |  | switch's bearer |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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