---
title: He listened to the retreating footsteps until they could be heard no… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He listened to the retreating footsteps until they could be heard no more, and the one sound that came to his tense ears was the beating of his own heart. Who acts: He, one sound. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/27/1/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIV, sentence 1

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He listened to the retreating footsteps until they could be heard no more, and the one sound that came to his tense ears was the beating of his own heart.

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**Who acts:** He, one sound · **What happens:** listen, retreat, hear, come, be · **To what, where:** footsteps, tense ears, beating

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (He, one sound), 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:pg2892:27:1
# text = He listened to the retreating footsteps until they could be heard no more, and the one sound that came to his tense ears was the beating of his own heart.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	retreating	retreat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	amod	_	_
6	footsteps	footstep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
7	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	_
12	no	no	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	tense	tense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	beating	beating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past | He |  |  |  |  | to the retreating footsteps | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to footstep=Theme |
| 2 | **retreat** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **hear** | could · passive |  | footsteps *= footstep* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come** | past | the one sound |  |  | his tense ears |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to ear=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **is a** | past | the one sound | the beating |  |  |  | of his own heart | tree rules |

<!-- .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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