---
title: Now and again a dog whined in a whisper and snapped a little snap on… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Now and again a dog whined in a whisper and snapped a little snap on the air, but except for that there was neither sound nor movement. Who acts: dog. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 14

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Now and again a dog whined in a whisper and snapped a little snap on the air, but except for that there was neither sound nor movement.

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**Who acts:** dog · **What happens:** whine, snap, be · **To what, where:** whisper, little snap, air, sound

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dog), 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:pg2892:60:14
# text = Now and again a dog whined in a whisper and snapped a little snap on the air, but except for that there was neither sound nor movement.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	again	again	ADV	RB	_	1	conj	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	whined	whine	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	whisper	whisper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	snapped	snap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	snap	snap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
20	except	except	ADP	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	fixed	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	24	expl	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	26	cc:preconj	_	_
26	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
27	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	28	cc	_	_
28	movement	movement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whine** | participle | a dog |  |  | a whisper | now |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in whisper=Location |
| 2 | **snap** | past | a dog *not said here* | a little snap |  | the air |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location snap=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | sound nor movement |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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