---
title: Her face was fresh as a spring morning; her voice more cheerful than… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Her face was fresh as a spring morning; her voice more cheerful than the cuckoo calling from the branch that is highest in the hedge; and her form swayed like a reed and flowed like a river, so that each person thought she would surely flow to him. Who acts: face, cuckoo, branch, form. A sentence of
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 15

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Her face was fresh as a spring morning; her voice more cheerful than the cuckoo calling from the branch that is highest in the hedge; and her form swayed like a reed and flowed like a river, so that each person thought she would surely flow to him.

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**Who acts:** face, cuckoo, branch, form, person, mother · **What happens:** be, call, sway, flow, think, form · **To what, where:** branch, hedge, person · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (face, cuckoo, branch, form), 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:pg2892:28:15
# text = Her face was fresh as a spring morning; her voice more cheerful than the cuckoo calling from the branch that is highest in the hedge; and her form swayed like a reed and flowed like a river, so that each person thought she would surely flow to him.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	fresh	fresh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	13	advmod	_	_
13	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
14	than	than	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	cuckoo	cuckoo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	calling	call	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	highest	high	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	20	acl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	hedge	hedge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	swayed	sway	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
32	like	like	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	reed	reed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	flowed	flow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	conj	_	_
37	like	like	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
41	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	45	mark	_	_
42	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	41	fixed	_	_
43	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	44	det	_	_
44	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
45	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
46	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
47	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	49	aux	_	_
48	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
49	flow	flow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	ccomp	_	_
50	to	to	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | mother's face |  |  |  | morning | fresh *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** | gerund | the cuckoo *not said here* |  |  | the branch |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from branch=Source |
| 3 | **is** | present | the branch |  |  | the hedge |  | high *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **sway** | past | mother's form |  |  |  |  | like a reed | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **flow** | participle | mother's form *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a river | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | past | each person |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 7 | **flow** | would | mother |  | person |  |  | surely *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **form** |  | mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication 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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