---
title: After long staring on the hungry nothingness of air and water he wou… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: After long staring on the hungry nothingness of air and water he would stare on the skin-stretched fabric of his boat as on a strangeness, or he would examine his hands and the texture of his skin and the stiff black hairs that grew behind his knuckles and sprouted around his ring, and he found in t
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/66/13/)

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 13

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After long staring on the hungry nothingness of air and water he would stare on the skin-stretched fabric of his boat as on a strangeness, or he would examine his hands and the texture of his skin and the stiff black hairs that grew behind his knuckles and sprouted around his ring, and he found in these things newness and wonder.

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**Who acts:** fish, stiff black hairs · **What happens:** stare, stretch, examine, grow, sprout, find · **To what, where:** skin, hands, knuckles, ring, things newness

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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 (fish, stiff black hairs), 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:pg2892:66:13
# text = After long staring on the hungry nothingness of air and water he would stare on the skin-stretched fabric of his boat as on a strangeness, or he would examine his hands and the texture of his skin and the stiff black hairs that grew behind his knuckles and sprouted around his ring, and he found in these things newness and wonder.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	staring	stare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	nothingness	nothingness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	stare	stare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
17	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	amod	_	_
20	fabric	fabric	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	strangeness	strangeness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	examine	examine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obj	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	texture	texture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
43	stiff	stiff	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
44	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	hairs	hair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	conj	_	_
46	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	47	nsubj	_	_
47	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	acl:relcl	_	_
48	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
50	knuckles	knuckle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obl	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	sprouted	sprout	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	conj	_	_
53	around	around	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	55	nmod:poss	_	_
55	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
57	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	59	cc	_	_
58	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	59	nsubj	_	_
59	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
60	in	in	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
61	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	63	det	_	_
62	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	63	compound	_	_
63	newness	newness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	obl	_	_
64	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	65	cc	_	_
65	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stare** | gerund | fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on the hungry nothingness of air and water | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on nothingness=Theme |
| 2 | **stare** | would | fish |  |  |  |  | as a strangeness; on the stretched fabric of fish's boat | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on fabric=Theme |
| 3 | **stretch** | participle · passive |  | skin |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **examine** | would | fish | fish's hands and the texture of fish's skin and the stiff black hairs |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 5 | **grow** | past | the stiff black hairs |  |  | fish's knuckles |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind knuckle=Location |
| 6 | **sprout** | past | the stiff black hairs *not said here* |  |  | fish's ring |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme around ring=Location |
| 7 | **find** | past | fish |  |  | this things newness and wonder |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |

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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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