---
title: There was a question and a statement in those deep eyes, and he coul… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a question and a statement in those deep eyes, and he could not understand what that question might be, nor what it was they sought to convey. Who acts: question, chase, it. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/33/13/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 13

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There was a question and a statement in those deep eyes, and he could not understand what that question might be, nor what it was they sought to convey.

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**Who acts:** question, chase, it · **What happens:** be, not understand, convey · **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 (question, chase, it), 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:pg2892:33:13
# text = There was a question and a statement in those deep eyes, and he could not understand what that question might be, nor what it was they sought to convey.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	statement	statement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
10	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	_
19	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	25	cc	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	parataxis	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	convey	convey	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a question and a statement in that deep eyes |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **understand** | could | chase |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **be** | might | that question |  |  |  |  |  | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | seek *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **convey** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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