---
title: They had moustaches poking under their noses and woolly wads growing… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They had moustaches poking under their noses and woolly wads growing out of their ears, so that when you looked at them the first time you never wanted to look at them again, and if you had to look at them a second time you were likely to die of the sight. Who acts: mouths, moustaches, woolly wads, 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/57/12/)

<!-- 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 II](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/57/) / 12

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They had moustaches poking under their noses and woolly wads growing out of their ears, so that when you looked at them the first time you never wanted to look at them again, and if you had to look at them a second time you were likely to die of the sight.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mouths, moustaches, woolly wads, you, first time · **What happens:** have, poke, grow out, look, not want, be · **To what, where:** moustaches, noses, ears, first time, second time

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mouths, moustaches, woolly wads, you), 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:pg2892:57:12
# text = They had moustaches poking under their noses and woolly wads growing out of their ears, so that when you looked at them the first time you never wanted to look at them again, and if you had to look at them a second time you were likely to die of the sight.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	moustaches	moustache	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
4	poking	poke	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
5	under	under	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	noses	nose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	woolly	woolly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	wads	wad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
11	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	21	mark	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	fixed	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	26	amod	_	_
26	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
34	again	again	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
37	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
38	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
41	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	xcomp	_	_
42	at	at	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	obl	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
45	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	46	amod	_	_
46	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl:unmarked	_	_
47	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
48	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	cop	_	_
49	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	acl:relcl	_	_
50	to	to	PART	TO	_	51	mark	_	_
51	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	49	xcomp	_	_
52	of	of	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | mouths *= mouth* | moustaches |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent moustache=Patient |
| 2 | **poke** | gerund | moustaches *not said here* |  |  | mouths's noses and woolly wads |  |  | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent under nose=Location |
| 3 | **grow out** | gerund | woolly wads *not said here* | mouths's ears |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location ear=Theme |
| 4 | **look** | past | you |  |  |  | time | at mouths *= mouth* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **want** | past | you | the first time *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **look** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the first time *not said here* |  |  |  | again | at mouths *= mouth* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme |
| 7 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **look** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  | time | at mouths *= mouth* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme |
| 9 | **is** | past | you | a second time *not said here* |  |  |  | likely *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **die** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the sight | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of sight=Causer |

<!-- .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 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/57/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/57/13/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter II](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/57/)