---
title: But when he was looking to the front what, or how many whats, could… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But when he was looking to the front what, or how many whats, could be staring at him from the back? Who acts: Fionn. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII, sentence 36

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But when he was looking to the front what, or how many whats, could be staring at him from the back?

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**Who acts:** Fionn · **What happens:** look, stare · **To what, where:** many whats, back

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. 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:pg2892:20:36
# text = But when he was looking to the front what, or how many whats, could be staring at him from the back?
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
13	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	whats	what	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
18	staring	stare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past · progressive | Fionn | many whats |  |  |  | to the front | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to front=Theme |
| 2 | **stare** | could · progressive |  |  |  | the back |  | at Fionn | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=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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