---
title: “It is the Carl,” he said, “carrying something on his back, and behi… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “It is the Carl,” he said, “carrying something on his back, and behind him again there is a dust.” Who acts: distance, Carl, dust. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. “What do you see?” Fionn demanded of the watcher, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/54/40/)

<!-- 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/) / 40

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII. “What do you see?” Fionn demanded of the watcher, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It is the Carl,” he said, “carrying something on his back, and behind him again there is a dust.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** distance, Carl, dust · **What happens:** be, say, carry · **To what, where:** Carl, something, back · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (distance, Carl, dust), 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:pg2892:54:40
# text = “It is the Carl,” he said, “carrying something on his back, and behind him again there is a dust.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Carl	Carl	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
13	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	obj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	again	again	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	23	expl	_	_
23	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | distance | the Carl |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Carl |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **carry** *in a quote* | gerund | the Carl *not said here* | something |  | Carl's back |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Theme |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* | present | a dust |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- 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 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/54/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/54/41/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VII. “What do you see?” Fionn demanded of the watcher](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/54/)