--- title: As they toiled desolately up the rustling and whispering side of a l… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics description: As they toiled desolately up the rustling and whispering side of a low hill the maid chanced to look back, and when she looked back she screamed and pointed, and clung to Becfola’s arm. Who acts: Becfola, expectation. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its dependen --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/41/47/) [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 II](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/41/) / 47 # Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 47 As they toiled desolately up the rustling and whispering side of a low hill the maid chanced to look back, and when she looked back she screamed and pointed, and clung to Becfola’s arm. **Who acts:** Becfola, expectation · **What happens:** toil, whisper, chance, look back, scream, point · **To what, where:** rustling, side, maid 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 (Becfola, expectation), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg2892:41:47 # text = As they toiled desolately up the rustling and whispering side of a low hill the maid chanced to look back, and when she looked back she screamed and pointed, and clung to Becfola’s arm. 1 As as SCONJ IN _ 3 mark _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 toiled toil VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 desolately desolately ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ _ 5 up up ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 rustling rustling NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obl _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 9 whispering whisper VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 7 conj _ _ 10 side side NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obj _ _ 11 of of ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 12 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 13 low low ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 amod _ _ 14 hill hill NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 nmod _ _ 15 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 maid maid NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 appos _ _ 17 chanced chance VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 16 acl _ _ 18 to to PART TO _ 19 mark _ _ 19 look look VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 17 xcomp _ _ 20 back back ADV RB _ 19 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 21 , , PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 28 cc _ _ 23 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 25 advmod _ _ 24 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 25 looked look VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 28 advcl _ _ 26 back back ADV RB _ 25 advmod _ _ 27 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 28 nsubj _ _ 28 screamed scream VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 29 and and CCONJ CC _ 30 cc _ _ 30 pointed point VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 28 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 32 and and CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 33 clung cling VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 30 xcomp _ _ 34 to to ADP IN _ 37 case _ _ 35 Becfola Becfola PROPN NNP Number=Sing 37 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 36 ’s 's PART POS _ 35 case _ _ 37 arm arm NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 38 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **toil** | past | Becfola | | | the rustling | | desolately *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme up rustling=Trajectory | | 2 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | gerund | Becfola *not said here* | side of a low hill | | | | | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent side=Topic | | 3 | **chance** | participle | | the maid *not said here* | | | | | vn risk-94-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 4 | **look back** | to-infinitive | | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 5 | **look back** | past | expectation | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 6 | **scream** *speech: express* | past | expectation | | | | | | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **point** | past | expectation *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 8 | **cling** | participle | expectation *not said here* | | | | | to Becfola's arm | vn cling-22.5 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to arm=Co-Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/41/46/) - next →: [sentence 48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/41/48/) - ↑ back to [Chapter II](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/41/)