---
title: “Would not that be a great happening!” and he stared in ecstasy acro… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Would not that be a great happening!” and he stared in ecstasy across the grass at those visions which a boy’s mind knows. Who acts: boy, mind. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IX, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/22/44/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IX, sentence 44

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“Would not that be a great happening!” and he stared in ecstasy across the grass at those visions which a boy’s mind knows.

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**Who acts:** boy, mind · **What happens:** not be, happen, stare, know, mind · **To what, where:** visions

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IX. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, mind), 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:pg2892:22:44
# text = “Would not that be a great happening!” and he stared in ecstasy across the grass at those visions which a boy’s mind knows.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
4	that	that	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	happening	happen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	ecstasy	ecstasy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
16	across	across	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	visions	vision	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	obj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’s	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | would |  |  |  |  |  | great, that *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **happen** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **stare** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | across the grass; at that visions; in ecstasy | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in ecstasy=Theme |
| 4 | **know** | present | a boy's mind | that visions |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus |
| 5 | **mind** |  | a boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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- ↑ back to [Chapter IX](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/22/)