---
title: The captain stared at her, as he well might, for he had never seen o… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The captain stared at her, as he well might, for he had never seen or imagined to see a woman so beautiful as this was. Who acts: captain. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 2

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The captain stared at her, as he well might, for he had never seen or imagined to see a woman so beautiful as this was.

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**Who acts:** captain · **What happens:** stare, not be, imagine, see · **To what, where:** woman

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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 (captain), 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:pg2892:34:2
# text = The captain stared at her, as he well might, for he had never seen or imagined to see a woman so beautiful as this was.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	captain	captain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
10	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	imagined	imagine	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	obl	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stare** | past | the captain |  |  |  |  | at woman | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at she=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | captain |  |  |  |  | see *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **imagine** | participle | captain *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | captain *not said here* | a woman |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer woman=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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