---
title: The messengers began to run through his tent at minute intervals cal… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The messengers began to run through his tent at minute intervals calling “nothing,” “nothing,” “nothing,” as they paused and darted away. Who acts: messengers, minute intervals. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/53/14/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VI, sentence 14

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The messengers began to run through his tent at minute intervals calling “nothing,” “nothing,” “nothing,” as they paused and darted away.

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**Who acts:** messengers, minute intervals · **What happens:** begin, run, call, pause, dart away · **To what, where:** tent, nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (messengers, minute intervals), 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:pg2892:53:14
# text = The messengers began to run through his tent at minute intervals calling “nothing,” “nothing,” “nothing,” as they paused and darted away.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	messengers	messenger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	through	through	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	tent	tent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	intervals	interval	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
12	calling	call	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	paused	pause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	darted	dart	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
30	away	away	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the messengers |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **run** | to-infinitive | the messengers *not said here* |  |  | Fionn's tent |  | at minute intervals | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through tent=Trajectory |
| 3 | **call** | gerund | minute intervals *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent nothing=Recipient |
| 4 | **pause** | past | messengers *= messenger* |  |  |  |  |  | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **dart away** | past | messengers *= messenger* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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