---
title: He climbed an icy mountain, the cold breath of which seemed to slip… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He climbed an icy mountain, the cold breath of which seemed to slip into his body and chip off inside of his bones, and there, until he mastered the sort of climbing on ice, for each step that he took upwards he slipped back ten steps. Who acts: head, cold breath, sort. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Ta
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter X, sentence 7

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He climbed an icy mountain, the cold breath of which seemed to slip into his body and chip off inside of his bones, and there, until he mastered the sort of climbing on ice, for each step that he took upwards he slipped back ten steps.

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**Who acts:** head, cold breath, sort · **What happens:** climb, seem, slip, chip off, master, take · **To what, where:** icy mountain, body, bones, sort, ice, ten steps

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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 (head, cold breath, sort), 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:pg2892:71:7
# text = He climbed an icy mountain, the cold breath of which seemed to slip into his body and chip off inside of his bones, and there, until he mastered the sort of climbing on ice, for each step that he took upwards he slipped back ten steps.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	climbed	climb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	icy	icy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	slip	slip	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	chip	chip	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
20	off	off	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	mastered	master	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
35	climbing	climb	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	acl	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	for	for	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	41	det	_	_
41	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
42	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	44	mark	_	_
43	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	_
45	upwards	upwards	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
46	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	slipped	slip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	parataxis	_	_
48	back	back	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
49	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	50	nummod	_	_
50	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **climb** | past | head | a icy mountain |  | there |  | the cold breath *obl* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location mountain=Theme |
| 2 | **seem** | past | the cold breath |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **slip** | to-infinitive | the cold breath *not said here* |  |  | head's body |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **chip off** | present | the cold breath *not said here* |  |  | head's bones |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **master** | past | head | the sort |  |  |  | for each step | tree rules |
| 6 | **climb** | gerund | the sort *not said here* |  |  | ice |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on ice=Trajectory |
| 7 | **take** | past | head |  |  |  |  | upwards *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **slip back** | past | head | ten steps |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent step=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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