---
title: But the eagle-eyed watcher watched until his eyes narrowed and becam… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the eagle-eyed watcher watched until his eyes narrowed and became pin-points, and he ceased to be a man and became an optic. Who acts: eyed watcher, eyes, eye. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. “What do you see?” Fionn demanded of the watcher, with its dependency 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/54/37/)

<!-- 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 VII. “What do you see?” Fionn…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/54/) / 37

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII. “What do you see?” Fionn demanded of the watcher, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the eagle-eyed watcher watched until his eyes narrowed and became pin-points, and he ceased to be a man and became an optic.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** eyed watcher, eyes, eye · **What happens:** watch, narrow, become, cease, be · **To what, where:** pin points, man

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. “What do you see?” Fionn demanded of the watcher. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyed watcher, eyes, eye), 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:pg2892:54:37
# text = But the eagle-eyed watcher watched until his eyes narrowed and became pin-points, and he ceased to be a man and became an optic.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
3	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	eyed	eyed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	watcher	watcher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	narrowed	narrow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
14	pin	pin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	points	point	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	ceased	cease	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	advcl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
27	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	optic	optic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | past | the eyed watcher |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **narrow** | past | watcher's eyes |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **become** | past | watcher's eyes *not said here* | pin points |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **cease** | past | eye |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **is a** | to-infinitive | eye *not said here* | a man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **become** | past | eye *not said here* |  |  |  |  | optic *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: 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 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/54/36/)
- next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/54/38/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VII. “What do you see?” Fionn demanded of the watcher](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/54/)