---
title: Dermod pondered, shaking his head as to an argument on his left side… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Dermod pondered, shaking his head as to an argument on his left side, and then nodding it again as to an argument on his right. Who acts: Dermod. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/44/33/)

<!-- 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 V](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/44/) / 33

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Dermod pondered, shaking his head as to an argument on his left side, and then nodding it again as to an argument on his right.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Dermod · **What happens:** ponder, shake, nod · **To what, where:** head

<!-- .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 (Dermod), 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:pg2892:44:33
# text = Dermod pondered, shaking his head as to an argument on his left side, and then nodding it again as to an argument on his right.
1	Dermod	Dermod	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	pondered	ponder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	shaking	shake	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	10	case	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	fixed	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	argument	argument	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	left	left	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
18	nodding	nod	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	again	again	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	24	case	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	argument	argument	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	right	right	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ponder** | past | Dermod |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **shake** | gerund | Dermod *not said here* | Dermod's head |  |  |  | as a argument on Dermod's left side | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 3 | **nod** | gerund | Dermod *not said here* | head |  |  | then; again | as a argument on Dermod's right | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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.

<!-- 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 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/44/32/)
- next →: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/44/34/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter V](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/44/)