---
title: Then Fionn would bend his head and stare into the water, and as he s… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Fionn would bend his head and stare into the water, and as he stared he would place his thumb in his mouth under his “Tooth of Knowledge,” his “wisdom tooth.” Who acts: Fionn. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XII, sentence 33

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Then Fionn would bend his head and stare into the water, and as he stared he would place his thumb in his mouth under his “Tooth of Knowledge,” his “wisdom tooth.”

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**Who acts:** Fionn · **What happens:** bend, stare, thumb · **To what, where:** head, mouth

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XII. 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:pg2892:25:33
# text = Then Fionn would bend his head and stare into the water, and as he stared he would place his thumb in his mouth under his “Tooth of Knowledge,” his “wisdom tooth.”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	bend	bend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	stare	stare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	thumb	thumb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	parataxis	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	under	under	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Tooth	tooth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	Knowledge	Knowledge	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
34	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	tooth	tooth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bend** | would | Fionn | Fionn's head |  |  | then |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent head=Patient tooth=Result |
| 2 | **stare** | infinitive | Fionn *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into the water | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into water=Theme |
| 3 | **stare** | past | Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **thumb** | would | Fionn |  |  | Fionn's mouth |  | under Fionn's Tooth of Knowledge | tree rules |

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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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- ← previous: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/25/32/)
- next →: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/25/34/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter XII](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/25/)