---
title: Three times she broke away and came bounding to us, and three times… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Three times she broke away and came bounding to us, and three times the dogs took her by the throat and dragged her back.” Who acts: Fionn, dogs. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/36/29/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 29

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Three times she broke away and came bounding to us, and three times the dogs took her by the throat and dragged her back.”

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**Who acts:** Fionn, dogs · **What happens:** break away, come, bound, take, drag back · **To what, where:** us, Fionn

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fionn, dogs), 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:pg2892:36:29
# text = Three times she broke away and came bounding to us, and three times the dogs took her by the throat and dragged her back.”
1	Three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
8	bounding	bound	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	dragged	drag	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	back	back	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break away** | past | Fionn |  |  |  | time | away *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **come** | past | Fionn *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **bound** | gerund | Fionn *not said here* |  | us |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to we=Destination |
| 4 | **take** | past | the dogs |  | Fionn |  | time | by the throat | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument she=Destination |
| 5 | **drag back** | past | the dogs *not said here* | Fionn |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |

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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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