---
title: He stood as though he were dumb and blind, and now and again he beat… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He stood as though he were dumb and blind, and now and again he beat terribly on his breast with his closed fist, as though he would kill that within him which should be dead and could not die. Who acts: captain. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV, with its dependency tr
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/36/35/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 IV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/36/) / 35

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He stood as though he were dumb and blind, and now and again he beat terribly on his breast with his closed fist, as though he would kill that within him which should be dead and could not die.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** captain · **What happens:** stand, be, beat, close, kill, not die · **To what, where:** breast, that

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (captain), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2892:36:35
# text = He stood as though he were dumb and blind, and now and again he beat terribly on his breast with his closed fist, as though he would kill that within him which should be dead and could not die.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	dumb	dumb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	again	again	ADV	RB	_	12	conj	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	terribly	terribly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	breast	breast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	fist	fist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
31	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	obj	_	_
32	within	within	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	_
34	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	37	nsubj	_	_
35	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	cop	_	_
37	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	parataxis	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
39	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
40	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	41	advmod	_	_
41	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | captain |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | captain |  |  |  |  | dumb *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | captain *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **beat** | past | captain |  |  | captain's breast with captain's closed fist | now | terribly *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on breast=Location |
| 5 | **close** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **kill** | would | captain | that |  |  |  | within servant | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 7 | **is** | should |  |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **not** **die** | could |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/36/34/)
- next →: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/36/36/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter IV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/36/)