---
title: At times they were pitched against the sky and staggered aloft, spin… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At times they were pitched against the sky and staggered aloft, spinning gustily there like wind-blown leaves. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. “Tell on, my love,” Finnian murmured, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V. “Tell on, my love,” Finnian murmured, sentence 17

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At times they were pitched against the sky and staggered aloft, spinning gustily there like wind-blown leaves.

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**What happens:** pitch, stagger, spin, blow · **To what, where:** cliffs, sky

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. “Tell on, my love,” Finnian murmured. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg2892:6:17
# text = At times they were pitched against the sky and staggered aloft, spinning gustily there like wind-blown leaves.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	pitched	pitch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	against	against	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	staggered	stagger	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	aloft	aloft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
14	gustily	gustily	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
16	like	like	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	blown	blow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	amod	_	_
20	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pitch** | past · passive |  | cliffs *= cliff* |  | the sky | time |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme against sky=Destination |
| 2 | **stagger** | past |  |  |  |  |  | aloft *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **spin** | gerund |  |  |  | there |  | like blown leaves | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **blow** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |

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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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