--- title: They were almost utterly absorbed in it, but they did not whine with… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics description: They were almost utterly absorbed in it, but they did not whine with eagerness, nor did they cast any glance towards him for the encouraging word which he never failed to give when they sought it. Who acts: signs, chase. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its depend --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/33/11/) [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 I](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/33/) / 11 # Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 11 They were almost utterly absorbed in it, but they did not whine with eagerness, nor did they cast any glance towards him for the encouraging word which he never failed to give when they sought it. **Who acts:** signs, chase · **What happens:** absorb, not whine, cast, not fail, give, seek · **To what, where:** signs, flight, glance 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 (signs, chase), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg2892:951`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg2892:33:11 # text = They were almost utterly absorbed in it, but they did not whine with eagerness, nor did they cast any glance towards him for the encouraging word which he never failed to give when they sought it. 1 They they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj:pass _ _ 2 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 aux:pass _ _ 3 almost almost ADV RB _ 5 advmod _ _ 4 utterly utterly ADV RB _ 5 advmod _ _ 5 absorbed absorb VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 6 in in ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 7 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 obl _ _ 8 , , PUNCT , _ 13 punct _ _ 9 but but CCONJ CC _ 13 cc _ _ 10 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 13 nsubj _ _ 11 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 13 aux _ _ 12 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 13 advmod _ _ 13 whine whine VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 5 conj _ _ 14 with with ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 15 eagerness eagerness NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obl _ _ 16 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 17 nor nor CCONJ CC Polarity=Neg 20 cc _ _ 18 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 aux _ _ 19 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 20 cast cast VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 5 conj _ _ 21 any any DET DT PronType=Ind 22 det _ _ 22 glance glance NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 obj _ _ 23 towards towards ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 obl _ _ 25 for for ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 27 encouraging encouraging ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 28 amod _ _ 28 word word NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 obl _ _ 29 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 34 obj _ _ 30 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 32 nsubj _ _ 31 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 32 advmod _ _ 32 failed fail VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 28 acl:relcl _ _ 33 to to PART TO _ 34 mark _ _ 34 give give VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 32 xcomp _ _ 35 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 37 advmod _ _ 36 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 37 nsubj _ _ 37 sought seek VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 34 advcl _ _ 38 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 37 obj _ _ 39 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **absorb** | past · passive | | signs *= sign* | | flight | | almost, utterly *property* | vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | | 2 | **not** **whine** | past · do-support | signs *= sign* | | | | | with eagerness | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with eagerness=Theme | | 3 | **cast** | past · do-support | signs *= sign* | any glance | | | | towards chase; for the encouraging word | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent glance=Product for word=Beneficiary | | 4 | **not** **fail** | past | chase | | | | | | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 5 | **give** | to-infinitive | chase *not said here* | | | | | | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Theme | | 6 | **seek** | past | signs *= sign* | glance | | | | | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | 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. **Text:** «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Project Gutenberg book 2892 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/33/10/) - next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/33/12/) - ↑ back to [Chapter I](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/33/)