---
title: And from the roof they would look down on the motionless figure belo… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And from the roof they would look down on the motionless figure below, and speculate on many things, including the staunchness of man, the qualities of their master, and even the possibility that the new gods might be as powerful as the old. Who acts: men, new gods. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales»
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And from the roof they would look down on the motionless figure below, and speculate on many things, including the staunchness of man, the qualities of their master, and even the possibility that the new gods might be as powerful as the old.

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**Who acts:** men, new gods · **What happens:** look down, speculate, be · **To what, where:** many things, possibility

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, new gods), 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:pg2892:3:22
# text = And from the roof they would look down on the motionless figure below, and speculate on many things, including the staunchness of man, the qualities of their master, and even the possibility that the new gods might be as powerful as the old.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	from	from	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	down	down	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	motionless	motionless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	below	below	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	speculate	speculate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	including	including	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	staunchness	staunchness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	appos	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	qualities	quality	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	even	even	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	possibility	possibility	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	parataxis	_	_
37	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	44	mark	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	nsubj	_	_
41	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	44	aux	_	_
42	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	cop	_	_
43	as	as	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	acl	_	_
45	as	as	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look down** | would | men *= man* |  |  |  |  | on the motionless figure; from the roof | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from roof=Theme |
| 2 | **speculate** | infinitive | men *= man* *not said here* |  |  | many things |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | might | the new gods | the possibility *not said here* |  |  |  | as the old; powerful *property* | 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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- ↑ back to [Chapter II](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/3/)