---
title: In a retired corner a gentleman stood in a thoughtful attitude while… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In a retired corner a gentleman stood in a thoughtful attitude while he tried to pull out a tooth that had been knocked loose. Who acts: gentleman, two. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 65

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In a retired corner a gentleman stood in a thoughtful attitude while he tried to pull out a tooth that had been knocked loose.

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**Who acts:** gentleman, two · **What happens:** retire, stand, try, pull out, knock · **To what, where:** retired corner, tooth

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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 (gentleman, two), 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:pg2892:46:65
# text = In a retired corner a gentleman stood in a thoughtful attitude while he tried to pull out a tooth that had been knocked loose.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	retired	retire	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	thoughtful	thoughtful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	attitude	attitude	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	tooth	tooth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	knocked	knock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	loose	loose	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **retire** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn resign-10.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **stand** | past | a gentleman |  |  | a retired corner |  | in a thoughtful attitude | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in corner=Location |
| 3 | **try** | past | two |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pull out** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | two *not said here* | a tooth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **knock** | past · perfect · passive |  | a tooth |  |  |  | loose *property* | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: subject=Patient |

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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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