---
title: His word was passed, and he stayed in his tree as silent as a mouse… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: His word was passed, and he stayed in his tree as silent as a mouse and as watchful, until he fell out of it. Who acts: Fionn. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 21

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His word was passed, and he stayed in his tree as silent as a mouse and as watchful, until he fell out of it.

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**Who acts:** Fionn · **What happens:** pass, stay, fall, word · **To what, where:** word, tree

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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 (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:pg2892:18:21
# text = His word was passed, and he stayed in his tree as silent as a mouse and as watchful, until he fell out of it.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	stayed	stay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obl	_	_
14	as	as	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	watchful	watchful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
24	out	out	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past · passive |  | Fionn's word |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory |
| 2 | **stay** | past | Fionn |  |  | Fionn's tree |  | as silent; as a mouse | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in tree=Location |
| 3 | **fall** | past | Fionn |  |  | tree |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme out it=Location |
| 4 | **word** |  | Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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