---
title: The king sank back in his chair stupefied, gazing from one to the ot… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The king sank back in his chair stupefied, gazing from one to the other, and then turned an unseeing, fear-dimmed eye towards Becfola. Who acts: king, chair. 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/pg2892/44/52/)

<!-- 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/) / 52

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The king sank back in his chair stupefied, gazing from one to the other, and then turned an unseeing, fear-dimmed eye towards Becfola.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, chair · **What happens:** sink back, stupefy, gaze, turn, dim · **To what, where:** unseeing dimmed eye, Becfola

<!-- .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 (king, chair), 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:pg2892:44:52
# text = The king sank back in his chair stupefied, gazing from one to the other, and then turned an unseeing, fear-dimmed eye towards Becfola.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	back	back	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	chair	chair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	stupefied	stupefy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	gazing	gaze	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	obl	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
19	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
21	unseeing	unseeing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
23	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	dimmed	dim	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	amod	_	_
26	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
27	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Becfola	Becfola	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sink back** | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **stupefy** | past | king's chair |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP-PRO-ARB»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **gaze** | gerund | king's chair *not said here* |  |  |  |  | from one to the other | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from one=Theme |
| 4 | **turn** | past | the king *not said here* | a unseeing dimmed eye |  | Becfola | then |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent eye=Theme towards becfola=Trajectory |
| 5 | **dim** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/44/51/)
- next →: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/44/53/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter V](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/44/)