---
title: The man bent to the hound, but it snapped a piece out of his hand, a… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The man bent to the hound, but it snapped a piece out of his hand, and nearly bit his nose off as well. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV. On the following day Fergus called his servant, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV. On the following day Fergus called his servant, sentence 14

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The man bent to the hound, but it snapped a piece out of his hand, and nearly bit his nose off as well.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** bend, snap, bite off · **To what, where:** man, piece, hand, nose

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV. On the following day Fergus called his servant. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg2892:31:14
# text = The man bent to the hound, but it snapped a piece out of his hand, and nearly bit his nose off as well.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
3	bent	bend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	hound	hound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	snapped	snap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	bit	bite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	off	off	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
24	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	20	advmod	_	_
25	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bend** | participle |  | the man *not said here* |  |  |  | to the hound | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to hound=Location |
| 2 | **snap** | past | the man | a piece |  | man's hand |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location piece=Theme |
| 3 | **bite off** | past |  | man's nose |  |  |  | nearly *property* | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nose=Patient |

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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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