---
title: When Segda heard this he was astonished and defiant; then, seeing th… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When Segda heard this he was astonished and defiant; then, seeing that he was alone and without prospect of succour, he grew downcast and was in great fear for his life. Who acts: Segda. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII, sentence 3

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When Segda heard this he was astonished and defiant; then, seeing that he was alone and without prospect of succour, he grew downcast and was in great fear for his life.

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**Who acts:** Segda · **What happens:** hear, be, see, grow, prospect · **To what, where:** this, great fear, succour · **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 (Segda), 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:pg2892:68:3
# text = When Segda heard this he was astonished and defiant; then, seeing that he was alone and without prospect of succour, he grew downcast and was in great fear for his life.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	Segda	Segda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
4	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	astonished	astonished	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	defiant	defiant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
11	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
19	without	without	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	prospect	prospect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	succour	succour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
26	downcast	downcast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Segda | this |  |  | then |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | Segda |  |  |  |  | astonished *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | Segda *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | gerund | Segda *not said here* |  |  |  |  | without prospect of succour | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | Segda |  |  |  |  | alone *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **grow** | past | Segda |  |  |  |  | downcast *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **is** | past | Segda *not said here* |  |  | great fear |  | for Segda's life | tree rules |
| 8 | **prospect** |  |  | succour |  |  |  |  | nom prospect «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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