---
title: His hands began to twitch and a desire crept over him to seize on ch… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: His hands began to twitch and a desire crept over him to seize on champions by the neck, and to shake and worry and rage among them like a wild dog raging among sheep. Who acts: hands, desire, wild dog. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI, with its dependency tree and the
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/53/28/)

<!-- 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 VI](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/53/) / 28

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VI, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His hands began to twitch and a desire crept over him to seize on champions by the neck, and to shake and worry and rage among them like a wild dog raging among sheep.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hands, desire, wild dog · **What happens:** begin, twitch, creep, seize, shake, worry · **To what, where:** champions

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (hands, desire, wild dog), 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:pg2892:53:28
# text = His hands began to twitch and a desire crept over him to seize on champions by the neck, and to shake and worry and rage among them like a wild dog raging among sheep.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	hands	hand	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	twitch	twitch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	over	over	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	seize	seize	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	champions	champion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	shake	shake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	worry	worry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	rage	rage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
27	among	among	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	like	like	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
33	raging	rage	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	acl	_	_
34	among	among	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | haze's hands |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **twitch** | to-infinitive | haze's hands *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **creep** | past | a desire |  |  |  |  | over haze | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over he=Trajectory |
| 4 | **seize** | to-infinitive | a desire *not said here* |  |  | champions |  | by the neck | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **shake** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **worry** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **rage** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | among hands *= hand*; like a wild dog | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among they=Location |
| 8 | **rage** | gerund | a wild dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  | among sheep | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among sheep=Location |

<!-- .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 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/53/27/)
- next →: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/53/29/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VI](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/53/)