---
title: The saint pushed his chair back hastily, and sat staring at his host… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The saint pushed his chair back hastily, and sat staring at his host, and as he stared the blood grew chill in his veins, and his hair crept along his scalp and stood on end. Who acts: saint, blood, hair. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 28

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The saint pushed his chair back hastily, and sat staring at his host, and as he stared the blood grew chill in his veins, and his hair crept along his scalp and stood on end.

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**Who acts:** saint, blood, hair · **What happens:** push back, sit, stare, grow, creep, stand · **To what, where:** chair, scalp, end

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (saint, blood, hair), 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:pg2892:4:28
# text = The saint pushed his chair back hastily, and sat staring at his host, and as he stared the blood grew chill in his veins, and his hair crept along his scalp and stood on end.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	saint	saint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	pushed	push	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	chair	chair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	back	back	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	hastily	hastily	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	staring	stare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	host	host	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
23	chill	chill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	veins	vein	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
32	along	along	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	scalp	scalp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **push back** | past | the saint | saint's chair |  |  |  | hastily *property* | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chair=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **stare** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | at saint's host | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at host=Theme |
| 4 | **stare** | past | saint |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **grow** | past | the blood |  |  |  |  | chill *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **creep** | past | saint's hair |  |  | saint's scalp |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along scalp=Trajectory |
| 7 | **stand** | past | saint's hair *not said here* |  |  |  | on end |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on end=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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