---
title: The young man left them, and with many a backward look and with drag… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The young man left them, and with many a backward look and with dragging, reluctant feet, Becfola crossed the threshold of the palace, wondering what she should say to Dermod and how she could account for an absence of three days’ duration. Who acts: young man, Becfola. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Ta
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 41

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The young man left them, and with many a backward look and with dragging, reluctant feet, Becfola crossed the threshold of the palace, wondering what she should say to Dermod and how she could account for an absence of three days’ duration.

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**Who acts:** young man, Becfola · **What happens:** leave, drag, cross, wonder, say, account · **To what, where:** roofs, threshold, Dermod, duration · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (young man, Becfola), 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:pg2892:42:41
# text = The young man left them, and with many a backward look and with dragging, reluctant feet, Becfola crossed the threshold of the palace, wondering what she should say to Dermod and how she could account for an absence of three days’ duration.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	nsubj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	backward	backward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	look	look	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
15	dragging	drag	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	reluctant	reluctant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
20	Becfola	Becfola	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	crossed	cross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	threshold	threshold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	advcl	_	_
29	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	32	obj	_	_
30	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	ccomp	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	Dermod	Dermod	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	39	advmod	_	_
37	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	_
40	for	for	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
44	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	45	nummod	_	_
45	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	’	's	PART	POS	_	45	case	_	_
47	duration	duration	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past | the young man | roofs *= roof* |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **drag** | gerund | Becfola *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **cross** | past | Becfola | the threshold of the palace |  |  |  | with a backward look and reluctant feet | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent threshold=Patient |
| 4 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | gerund | Becfola *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | should | Becfola |  | Dermod and account |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Topic to dermod=Recipient |
| 6 | **account** | could | Becfola |  |  |  |  | for a absence of three days's duration | tree rules |
| 7 | **absent** |  |  | three days's duration |  |  |  |  | nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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