---
title: Dreadful was that mouth to look at, terrible to look into, woeful to… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Dreadful was that mouth to look at, terrible to look into, woeful to think about; and from it, or from the broad, loose nose that waggled above it, there came a sound which no word of man could describe, for it was not a snarl, nor was it a howl, although it was both of these. Who acts: Dreadful, br
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/78/22/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Irish Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/) / [Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/78/) / 22

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Dreadful was that mouth to look at, terrible to look into, woeful to think about; and from it, or from the broad, loose nose that waggled above it, there came a sound which no word of man could describe, for it was not a snarl, nor was it a howl, although it was both of these.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Dreadful, broad loose nose, word, dog · **What happens:** be, look, think about, waggle, come, describe · **To what, where:** mouth, sound, howl, man

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dreadful, broad loose nose, word, dog), 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:pg2892:78:22
# text = Dreadful was that mouth to look at, terrible to look into, woeful to think about; and from it, or from the broad, loose nose that waggled above it, there came a sound which no word of man could describe, for it was not a snarl, nor was it a howl, although it was both of these.
1	Dreadful	dreadful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	woeful	woeful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
26	broad	broad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	loose	loose	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
31	waggled	waggle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
32	above	above	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	36	expl	_	_
36	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	parataxis	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	45	obj	_	_
40	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	41	det	_	_
41	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod	_	_
44	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
45	describe	describe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
47	for	for	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
48	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
49	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	52	cop	_	_
50	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	52	advmod	_	_
51	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	snarl	snarl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
54	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	58	cc	_	_
55	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	58	cop	_	_
56	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	58	nsubj	_	_
57	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	howl	howl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	63	punct	_	_
60	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	63	mark	_	_
61	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	63	nsubj	_	_
62	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	63	cop	_	_
63	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	58	appos	_	_
64	of	of	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
65	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	63	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Dreadful | that mouth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | at terrible | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at terrible=Theme |
| 3 | **look** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **think about** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **waggle** | past | the broad loose nose |  |  |  |  | above dog | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **come** | past |  | a sound |  | there |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location sound=Theme |
| 7 | **describe** | could | no word of man | a sound |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent which=Theme |
| 8 | **not** **is** | past | dog |  |  |  |  | for a snarl | tree rules |
| 9 | **is a** | past | dog | a howl |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **word** |  |  | man |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/78/21/)
- next →: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/78/23/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/78/)