---
title: Then they smiled a smile that was agreeable to their own eyes, but w… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they smiled a smile that was agreeable to their own eyes, but which would have been a deadly thing for anybody else to see. Who acts: noses, smile. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter II, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/57/23/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter II, sentence 23

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Then they smiled a smile that was agreeable to their own eyes, but which would have been a deadly thing for anybody else to see.

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**Who acts:** noses, smile · **What happens:** smile, be, see · **To what, where:** smile, deadly thing

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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 (noses, smile), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg2892:57:23
# text = Then they smiled a smile that was agreeable to their own eyes, but which would have been a deadly thing for anybody else to see.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	smiled	smile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	agreeable	agreeable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	acl:relcl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	cop	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	deadly	deadly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	21	nmod	_	_
24	else	else	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **smile** | past | noses *= nose* | a smile |  |  | then |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent smile=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | past | a smile |  |  |  |  | to noses's own eyes; agreeable *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | would · perfect |  | a deadly thing |  |  |  | for anybody | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/57/22/)
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- ↑ back to [Chapter II](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/57/)