---
title: Then as two lions, long-clawed, deep-mouthed, snarling, with rigid m… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then as two lions, long-clawed, deep-mouthed, snarling, with rigid mane, with red-eyed glare, with flashing, sharp-white fangs, they prowled lithely about each other seeking for an opening. Who acts: skulls. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter X, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter X, sentence 41

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Then as two lions, long-clawed, deep-mouthed, snarling, with rigid mane, with red-eyed glare, with flashing, sharp-white fangs, they prowled lithely about each other seeking for an opening.

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**Who acts:** skulls · **What happens:** snarl, prowl, seek

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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 (skulls), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg2892:2143`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2892:71:41
# text = Then as two lions, long-clawed, deep-mouthed, snarling, with rigid mane, with red-eyed glare, with flashing, sharp-white fangs, they prowled lithely about each other seeking for an opening.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	35	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	lions	lion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	_
8	clawed	claw	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	deep	deep	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	_
12	mouthed	mouth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	snarling	snarl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	rigid	rigid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	mane	mane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	compound	_	_
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	_
23	eyed	eye	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	glare	glare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
27	flashing	flashing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	sharp	sharp	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	_
31	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	fangs	fang	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	prowled	prowl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
36	lithely	lithely	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	about	about	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	35	obl	_	_
39	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	fixed	_	_
40	seeking	seek	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	advcl	_	_
41	for	for	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	opening	opening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	_
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **snarl** | gerund | skulls *= skull* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **prowl** | past | skulls *= skull* |  |  |  | then | as two lions with rigid mane and eyed glare and flashing white fangs; about each; lithely *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about each=Trajectory |
| 3 | **seek** | gerund | skulls *= skull* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a opening | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for opening=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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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