---
title: But darkness was not a thing to terrify him, bred in the nightness o… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But darkness was not a thing to terrify him, bred in the nightness of a wood and the very fosterling of gloom; nor could the wind afflict his ear or his heart. Who acts: darkness, wind. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIII, sentence 5

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But darkness was not a thing to terrify him, bred in the nightness of a wood and the very fosterling of gloom; nor could the wind afflict his ear or his heart.

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**Who acts:** darkness, wind · **What happens:** not be, terrify, breed, afflict · **To what, where:** thing, silence, nightness, ear

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (darkness, wind), 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:pg2892:26:5
# text = But darkness was not a thing to terrify him, bred in the nightness of a wood and the very fosterling of gloom; nor could the wind afflict his ear or his heart.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	terrify	terrify	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	bred	breed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	nightness	nightness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	fosterling	fosterling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	gloom	gloom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
25	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	29	cc	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	afflict	afflict	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | darkness | a thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **terrify** | to-infinitive |  | silence |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 3 | **breed** | participle |  | a thing *not said here* |  | the nightness of a wood and the fosterling of gloom |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **afflict** | could | the wind | wind's ear or wind's heart |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus ear=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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