---
title: They were racing through a smooth valley in a steady, beautiful, spe… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They were racing through a smooth valley in a steady, beautiful, speedy flight when, suddenly, the fawn stopped and lay on the grass, and it lay with the calm of an animal that has no fear, and the leisure of one that is not pressed. Who acts: Bran, fawn, flight, animal. A sentence of «Irish Fairy T
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were racing through a smooth valley in a steady, beautiful, speedy flight when, suddenly, the fawn stopped and lay on the grass, and it lay with the calm of an animal that has no fear, and the leisure of one that is not pressed.

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**Who acts:** Bran, fawn, flight, animal · **What happens:** race, stop, lay, lie, have, not press · **To what, where:** smooth valley, grass, fear

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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 (Bran, fawn, flight, animal), 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:pg2892:33:29
# text = They were racing through a smooth valley in a steady, beautiful, speedy flight when, suddenly, the fawn stopped and lay on the grass, and it lay with the calm of an animal that has no fear, and the leisure of one that is not pressed.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	racing	race	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	through	through	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
10	steady	steady	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	speedy	speedy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	fawn	fawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	calm	calm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
38	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj	_	_
39	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	acl:relcl	_	_
40	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	41	det	_	_
41	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	leisure	leisure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	obl	_	_
48	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	51	nsubj:pass	_	_
49	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	51	aux:pass	_	_
50	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	51	advmod	_	_
51	pressed	press	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	47	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **race** | past · progressive | Bran |  |  | a smooth valley in a steady beautiful speedy flight |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through valley=Trajectory |
| 2 | **stop** | past | the fawn |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **lay** | infinitive | the fawn *not said here* |  |  | the grass |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on grass=Destination |
| 4 | **lie** | past | flight |  |  |  |  | with the calm of a animal; of one | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **have** | present | a animal | no fear |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fear=Patient |
| 6 | **not** **press** | present · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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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