---
title: But Fionn had taken the covering from his spear, and with his brow p… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But Fionn had taken the covering from his spear, and with his brow pressed close to it he kept his mind and all his senses engaged on that sizzling, murderous point. Who acts: Fionn, senses. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIV, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But Fionn had taken the covering from his spear, and with his brow pressed close to it he kept his mind and all his senses engaged on that sizzling, murderous point.

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**Who acts:** Fionn, senses · **What happens:** take, press, keep, engage, mind · **To what, where:** Fionn, spear, brow, darkness, mind, sizzling

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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 (Fionn, senses), 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:pg2892:27:14
# text = But Fionn had taken the covering from his spear, and with his brow pressed close to it he kept his mind and all his senses engaged on that sizzling, murderous point.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	covering	covering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	brow	brow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
15	pressed	press	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
16	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	26	det:predet	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	senses	sens	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
27	engaged	engage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	det	_	_
30	sizzling	sizzling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	murderous	murderous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	point	point	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past · perfect · passive |  | Fionn |  | Fionn's spear |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme covering=Destination |
| 2 | **press** | participle |  | Fionn's brow *not said here* | darkness |  |  | close *property* | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **keep** | past | Fionn | Fionn's mind |  |  |  | with Fionn's brow | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mind=Theme |
| 4 | **engage** | past | Fionn's senses |  |  | that sizzling |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-2 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **mind** |  | Fionn |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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