---
title: In a forked glen into which he slipped at night-fall he was surround… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In a forked glen into which he slipped at night-fall he was surrounded by giant toads, who spat poison, and were icy as the land they lived in, and were cold and foul and savage. Who acts: head, giant toads, toads. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter X, with its dependency t
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter X, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In a forked glen into which he slipped at night-fall he was surrounded by giant toads, who spat poison, and were icy as the land they lived in, and were cold and foul and savage.

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**Who acts:** head, giant toads, toads · **What happens:** fork, slip, surround, spat, be, live in · **To what, where:** forked glen, head, poison, land

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

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2892:71:9
# text = In a forked glen into which he slipped at night-fall he was surrounded by giant toads, who spat poison, and were icy as the land they lived in, and were cold and foul and savage.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	forked	fork	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	glen	glen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	obl	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	slipped	slip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	fall	fall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	surrounded	surround	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	toads	toad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	spat	spat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	icy	icy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
27	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
32	in	in	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
36	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	foul	foul	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	conj	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	savage	savage	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fork** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn pocket-9.10 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **slip** | past | head |  |  | a forked glen |  | at night fall | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **surround** | past · passive | giant toads | head |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **spat** | present | giant toads | poison |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | head *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as the land; icy *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **live in** | past | toads *= toad* | the land *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme land=Location |
| 7 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | cold *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **be** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **be** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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