---
title: They came to the narrow place on the slope of the mountain, and they… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They came to the narrow place on the slope of the mountain, and they saw the five great hounds in a circle keeping off the other dogs, and in the middle of the ring a little boy was standing. Who acts: men, circle, little boy. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V, with its 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They came to the narrow place on the slope of the mountain, and they saw the five great hounds in a circle keeping off the other dogs, and in the middle of the ring a little boy was standing.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** men, circle, little boy · **What happens:** come, see, keep off, stand · **To what, where:** narrow place, five great hounds, circle, other dogs, middle

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, circle, little boy), 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:pg2892:37:15
# text = They came to the narrow place on the slope of the mountain, and they saw the five great hounds in a circle keeping off the other dogs, and in the middle of the ring a little boy was standing.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	slope	slope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
19	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	hounds	hound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	circle	circle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
24	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
25	off	off	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | men *= man* |  |  | the narrow place on the slope of the mountain |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to place=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **see** | past | men *= man* | the five great hounds |  | a circle |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hound=Stimulus |
| 3 | **keep off** | gerund | a circle *not said here* | the other dogs |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Theme |
| 4 | **stand** | past · progressive | a little boy |  |  | the middle of the ring |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in middle=Location |

<!-- .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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