---
title: “Who are you at all?” he cried, starting back from the chessboard an… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Who are you at all?” he cried, starting back from the chessboard and staring on Fionn. Who acts: subject. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VIII, sentence 52

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“Who are you at all?” he cried, starting back from the chessboard and staring on Fionn.

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**Who acts:** subject · **What happens:** cry, start back, stare · **To what, where:** chessboard

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (subject), 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:pg2892:21:52
# text = “Who are you at all?” he cried, starting back from the chessboard and staring on Fionn.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	starting	start	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
13	back	back	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	chessboard	chessboard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	staring	stare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | subject |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **start back** | gerund | subject *not said here* |  |  | the chessboard |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **stare** | gerund | subject *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on Fionn | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on fionn=Theme |

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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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