---
title: Great waves whizzed from the sea: spinning across the cliffs and hur… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Great waves whizzed from the sea: spinning across the cliffs and hurtling to the earth in monstrous clots of foam; the very rocks came trundling and sidling and grinding among the trees; and in that rage, and in that horror of blackness I fell asleep, or I was beaten into slumber.” Who acts: Great w
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V. “Tell on, my love,” Finnian murmured, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Great waves whizzed from the sea: spinning across the cliffs and hurtling to the earth in monstrous clots of foam; the very rocks came trundling and sidling and grinding among the trees; and in that rage, and in that horror of blackness I fell asleep, or I was beaten into slumber.”

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**Who acts:** Great waves, rocks, I · **What happens:** whiz, spin, hurtle, come, trundle, sidle · **To what, where:** sea, cliffs, monstrous clots, horror, I, slumber

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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: who acts (Great waves, rocks, I), 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:pg2892:6:27
# text = Great waves whizzed from the sea: spinning across the cliffs and hurtling to the earth in monstrous clots of foam; the very rocks came trundling and sidling and grinding among the trees; and in that rage, and in that horror of blackness I fell asleep, or I was beaten into slumber.”
1	Great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	whizzed	whiz	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
8	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
9	across	across	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	cliffs	cliff	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	hurtling	hurtle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	monstrous	monstrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	clots	clot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	foam	foam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
27	trundling	trundle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	xcomp	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	sidling	sidle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	conj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	grinding	grind	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	conj	_	_
32	among	among	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	39	det	_	_
39	rage	rage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	44	det	_	_
44	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	blackness	blackness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	_
47	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
48	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
49	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
51	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
52	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	54	nsubj	_	_
53	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	54	aux:pass	_	_
54	beaten	beat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
55	into	into	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	slumber	slumber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whiz** | past | Great waves |  |  | the sea |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from sea=Trajectory |
| 2 | **spin** | gerund | Great waves *not said here* |  |  | the cliffs |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme across cliff=Trajectory |
| 3 | **hurtle** | gerund | Great waves *not said here* |  |  | monstrous clots of foam |  | to the earth | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to earth=Destination |
| 4 | **come** | past | the rocks |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **trundle** | gerund | the rocks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **sidle** | gerund | the rocks *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **grind** | gerund | the rocks *not said here* |  |  |  |  | among the trees | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 8 | **fall** | past | I |  |  | that horror of blackness |  | asleep *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in horror=Location |
| 9 | **beat** | past · passive |  | I |  | slumber |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Patient into slumber=Recipient |

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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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