---
title: But while Fionn and the Fianna stared like lost minds upon the Carl,… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But while Fionn and the Fianna stared like lost minds upon the Carl, there came a sound of buzzing, as if a hornet or a queen of the wasps or a savage, steep-winged griffin was hovering about them, and looking away they saw Cael of the Iron charging on them with a monstrous extension and scurry of h
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VIII, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But while Fionn and the Fianna stared like lost minds upon the Carl, there came a sound of buzzing, as if a hornet or a queen of the wasps or a savage, steep-winged griffin was hovering about them, and looking away they saw Cael of the Iron charging on them with a monstrous extension and scurry of his legs.

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**Who acts:** Fionn, winged griffin, wasps, Cael, legs · **What happens:** stare, lose, come, wing, hover, look away · **To what, where:** sound, wasps, Cael · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fionn, winged griffin, wasps, Cael), 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:pg2892:55:17
# text = But while Fionn and the Fianna stared like lost minds upon the Carl, there came a sound of buzzing, as if a hornet or a queen of the wasps or a savage, steep-winged griffin was hovering about them, and looking away they saw Cael of the Iron charging on them with a monstrous extension and scurry of his legs.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	Fionn	Fionn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Fianna	Fianna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
7	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
10	minds	mind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Carl	Carl	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
15	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	16	expl	_	_
16	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	buzzing	buzzing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	hornet	hornet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
26	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	wasps	wasp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
32	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	savage	savage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	steep	steep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	winged	wing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	39	amod	_	_
39	griffin	griffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	hovering	hover	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	acl:relcl	_	_
42	about	about	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
46	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	49	csubj	_	_
47	away	away	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
48	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
49	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
50	Cael	Cael	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	49	obj	_	_
51	of	of	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	Iron	Iron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	50	nmod	_	_
54	charging	charge	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	49	xcomp	_	_
55	on	on	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	obl	_	_
57	with	with	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
58	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	60	det	_	_
59	monstrous	monstrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	amod	_	_
60	extension	extension	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obl	_	_
61	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	62	cc	_	_
62	scurry	scurry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	conj	_	_
63	of	of	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
64	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	65	nmod:poss	_	_
65	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	62	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stare** | past | Fionn and the Fianna |  |  |  |  | like lost minds; upon the Carl | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent upon carl=Theme |
| 2 | **lose** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come** | past |  | a sound of buzzing |  | there |  | as a hornet or a queen of the wasps or a savage | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sound=Theme |
| 4 | **wing** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **hover** | past · progressive | winged griffin | the wasps or a savage *not said here* |  |  |  | about wasps *= wasp* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wasp=Theme |
| 6 | **look away** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 7 | **see** | past | wasps *= wasp* | Cael of the Iron |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **charge** | gerund | Cael of the Iron *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on wasps *= wasp*; with a monstrous extension and scurry of griffin's legs | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on they=Trajectory |
| 9 | **scurry** |  | griffin's legs |  |  |  |  |  | nom scurry «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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