---
title: The executioner drew his wide, thin blade and all those present cove… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The executioner drew his wide, thin blade and all those present covered their eyes with their cloaks, when a wailing voice called on the executioner to delay yet a moment. Who acts: executioner, present. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII, sentence 21

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The executioner drew his wide, thin blade and all those present covered their eyes with their cloaks, when a wailing voice called on the executioner to delay yet a moment.

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**Who acts:** executioner, present · **What happens:** draw, cover, wail, call, delay · **To what, where:** wide thin blade, eyes, wailing voice, executioner · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (executioner, present), 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:pg2892:68:21
# text = The executioner drew his wide, thin blade and all those present covered their eyes with their cloaks, when a wailing voice called on the executioner to delay yet a moment.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	executioner	executioner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
5	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	blade	blade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	12	det:predet	_	_
11	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	cloaks	cloak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	wailing	wail	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	amod	_	_
23	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	executioner	executioner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	delay	delay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	acl	_	_
30	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **draw** | past | the executioner | executioner's wide thin blade |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blade=Theme |
| 2 | **cover** | past | all present | people's eyes |  |  |  | with people's cloaks | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent eye=Destination with cloak=Theme |
| 3 | **wail** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **call** | participle · passive |  | a wailing voice |  | the executioner yet a moment |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 5 | **delay** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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