---
title: They began to chant and intone long, heavy rhymes and incantations,… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They began to chant and intone long, heavy rhymes and incantations, until the rhythmic beating of their voices covered even the noise of war, so that the men stopped hacking and hewing, and let their weapons drop from their hands. Who acts: Lips, voices, men, weapons. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tale
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They began to chant and intone long, heavy rhymes and incantations, until the rhythmic beating of their voices covered even the noise of war, so that the men stopped hacking and hewing, and let their weapons drop from their hands.

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**Who acts:** Lips, voices, men, weapons, war · **What happens:** begin, chant, intone, cover, stop, hack · **To what, where:** long heavy rhymes, noise, hands, voices

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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 (Lips, voices, men, weapons), 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:pg2892:46:85
# text = They began to chant and intone long, heavy rhymes and incantations, until the rhythmic beating of their voices covered even the noise of war, so that the men stopped hacking and hewing, and let their weapons drop from their hands.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	chant	chant	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	intone	intone	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
7	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	rhymes	rhyme	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	incantations	incantation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	until	until	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	rhythmic	rhythmic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	beating	beating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
21	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	even	even	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
33	hacking	hack	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	xcomp	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	hewing	hew	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	32	conj	_	_
39	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	weapons	weapon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nsubj	_	_
41	drop	drop	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	xcomp	_	_
42	from	from	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Lips *= lip* |  |  |  | until the rhythmic beating of Lips's voices |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **chant** | to-infinitive | Lips *= lip* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **intone** | infinitive | Lips *= lip* *not said here* | long heavy rhymes and incantations |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rhyme=Theme |
| 4 | **cover** | participle | Lips's voices *not said here* | the noise of war |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme noise=Destination |
| 5 | **stop** | past | the men |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **hack** | gerund | the men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **hew** | gerund | the men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 8 | **let** | infinitive | the men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **drop** | present | Lips's weapons |  |  | Lips's hands |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme from hand=Trajectory |
| 10 | **beat** |  |  | Lips's voices |  |  |  |  | nom beating «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 11 | **noise** |  | war |  |  |  |  |  | nom noise «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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