---
title: But while they were talking over the adventure and explaining how it… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But while they were talking over the adventure and explaining how it had happened, a vast figure strode over the side of the hill and descended among them. Who acts: jump, it, vast figure. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/61/2/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VI, sentence 2

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But while they were talking over the adventure and explaining how it had happened, a vast figure strode over the side of the hill and descended among them.

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**Who acts:** jump, it, vast figure · **What happens:** talk, explain, happen, stride, descend · **To what, where:** adventure, side · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (jump, it, vast figure), 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:pg2892:61:2
# text = But while they were talking over the adventure and explaining how it had happened, a vast figure strode over the side of the hill and descended among them.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
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	_	_
5	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
6	over	over	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	adventure	adventure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	explaining	explain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
11	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	strode	stride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	over	over	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	descended	descend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
28	among	among	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · progressive | jump |  |  | the adventure |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **explain** *speech: assert* | gerund | jump *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** | past · perfect | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **stride** | past | a vast figure |  |  | the side of the hill |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over side=Trajectory |
| 5 | **descend** | past | a vast figure *not said here* |  |  |  |  | among jump | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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