---
title: And they waited, looking no longer on that scarcely perceptible spec… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And they waited, looking no longer on that scarcely perceptible speck in the distance, but straining upon the eye of the watcher as though they would penetrate it and look through it. Who acts: points. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. “What do you see?” Fionn demande
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII. “What do you see?” Fionn demanded of the watcher, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And they waited, looking no longer on that scarcely perceptible speck in the distance, but straining upon the eye of the watcher as though they would penetrate it and look through it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** points · **What happens:** wait, look, strain, penetrate · **To what, where:** distance

<!-- .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 (points), 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:pg2892:54:39
# text = And they waited, looking no longer on that scarcely perceptible speck in the distance, but straining upon the eye of the watcher as though they would penetrate it and look through it.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
6	no	no	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	nsubj	_	_
10	scarcely	scarcely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	perceptible	perceptible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	speck	speck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	straining	strain	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	advcl	_	_
19	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	watcher	watcher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	as	as	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
26	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	penetrate	penetrate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
33	through	through	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wait** | past | points *= point* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **look** | gerund | points *= point* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on scarcely perceptible speck in the distance; long *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on speck=Theme |
| 3 | **strain** | gerund | points *= point* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon the eye of the watcher | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **penetrate** | would | points *= point* | distance |  |  |  |  | vn poke-19 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 5 | **look** | infinitive | points *= point* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | through distance | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent through it=Theme |

<!-- .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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