---
title: He saw, then, not a thing but a movement; something that was darker… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He saw, then, not a thing but a movement; something that was darker than the darkness it loomed on; not a being but a presence, and, as it were, impending pressure. Who acts: eye, that, darkness. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/27/9/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Irish Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/) / [Chapter XIV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/27/) / 9

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIV, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He saw, then, not a thing but a movement; something that was darker than the darkness it loomed on; not a being but a presence, and, as it were, impending pressure.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** eye, that, darkness · **What happens:** see, be, loom on, not be, impend · **To what, where:** thing, darkness, presence, pressure

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (eye, that, darkness), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2892:27:9
# text = He saw, then, not a thing but a movement; something that was darker than the darkness it loomed on; not a being but a presence, and, as it were, impending pressure.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	movement	movement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
13	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	8	appos	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	darker	dark	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	amod	_	_
17	than	than	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	loomed	loom	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
26	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	cop	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
33	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	impending	impend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
38	pressure	pressure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | eye | a thing but a movement |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | that |  |  |  |  | than the darkness; dark *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **loom on** | past | darkness | the darkness *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location darkness=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **is a** | gerund | eye *not said here* | a presence |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **impend** | past · progressive | darkness | pressure |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/27/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/27/10/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter XIV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/27/)