---
title: But the ceremony had scarcely been completed when the tread of a sin… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the ceremony had scarcely been completed when the tread of a single man caused the palace to quake and seemed to jar the world. Who acts: tread, single man. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter X, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter X, sentence 31

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But the ceremony had scarcely been completed when the tread of a single man caused the palace to quake and seemed to jar the world.

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**Who acts:** tread, single man · **What happens:** complete, cause, quake, seem, tread · **To what, where:** ceremony, palace, jar

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter X. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tread, single man), 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:pg2892:71:31
# text = But the ceremony had scarcely been completed when the tread of a single man caused the palace to quake and seemed to jar the world.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	ceremony	ceremony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	completed	complete	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	tread	tread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
15	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	quake	quake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	jar	jar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **complete** | past · perfect · passive |  | the ceremony |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **cause** | past | the tread of a single man | the palace |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition palace=Patient |
| 3 | **quake** | to-infinitive | the tread of a single man *not said here* | the palace *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **seem** | past | the tread of a single man *not said here* | jar  the world |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme jar=Attribute |
| 5 | **tread** |  | a single man |  |  |  |  |  | nom tread «act intransitive»: of=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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