---
title: They calculated things by the shape of clouds, by lengths of shadows… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They calculated things by the shape of clouds, by lengths of shadows, by the flight of birds, by two flies racing on a flat stone, by throwing bones over their left shoulders, and by every kind of trick and game and chance that you could put a mind to. Who acts: women, two flies, you. A sentence of 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They calculated things by the shape of clouds, by lengths of shadows, by the flight of birds, by two flies racing on a flat stone, by throwing bones over their left shoulders, and by every kind of trick and game and chance that you could put a mind to.

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**Who acts:** women, two flies, you · **What happens:** calculate, race, throw, put to · **To what, where:** things, flat stone, bones, left shoulders, mind

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (women, two flies, you), 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:pg2892:18:10
# text = They calculated things by the shape of clouds, by lengths of shadows, by the flight of birds, by two flies racing on a flat stone, by throwing bones over their left shoulders, and by every kind of trick and game and chance that you could put a mind to.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	calculated	calculate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	lengths	length	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
24	racing	race	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	flat	flat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
31	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	conj	_	_
32	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
33	over	over	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
35	left	left	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
39	by	by	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	41	det	_	_
41	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	trick	trick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	game	game	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	conj	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	conj	_	_
48	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	51	mark	_	_
49	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
50	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
51	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	acl	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obj	_	_
54	to	to	ADP	TO	_	51	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **calculate** | past | women *= woman* | things |  |  |  | by the shape of clouds and lengths of shadows; by the flight of birds by two flies | tree rules |
| 2 | **race** | gerund | two flies *not said here* |  |  | a flat stone |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on stone=Trajectory |
| 3 | **throw** | gerund | two flies *not said here* | bones |  | women's left shoulders |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent bone=Theme over shoulder=Destination |
| 4 | **put to** | could | you | a mind |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent mind=Goal |

<!-- .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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