---
title: It was neither a growl nor a grunt, although it was both of these; i… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was neither a growl nor a grunt, although it was both of these; it was not a yowl nor a groan, although it was both of these: for it was one sound made up of these sounds, and there was in it, too, a whine and a yelp, and a long-drawn snoring noise, and a deep purring noise, and a noise that was 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VII. “It is not nice of you to laugh at us,” said Fiachna Finn, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was neither a growl nor a grunt, although it was both of these; it was not a yowl nor a groan, although it was both of these: for it was one sound made up of these sounds, and there was in it, too, a whine and a yelp, and a long-drawn snoring noise, and a deep purring noise, and a noise that was like the squeal of a rusty hinge, and there were other noises in it also.

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**Who acts:** dog, growl, noise, other noises · **What happens:** be, not be, make up, draw · **To what, where:** growl, yowl, one sound, whine

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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 (dog, growl, noise, other noises), 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:pg2892:78:23
# text = It was neither a growl nor a grunt, although it was both of these; it was not a yowl nor a groan, although it was both of these: for it was one sound made up of these sounds, and there was in it, too, a whine and a yelp, and a long-drawn snoring noise, and a deep purring noise, and a noise that was like the squeal of a rusty hinge, and there were other noises in it also.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	5	cc:preconj	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	growl	growl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nsubj	_	_
6	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	8	cc	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	grunt	grunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	yowl	yowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	24	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	groan	groan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	appos	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	37	punct	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	37	nummod	_	_
37	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
38	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	37	acl	_	_
39	up	up	ADP	RP	_	38	compound:prt	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	42	det	_	_
42	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
45	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	46	expl	_	_
46	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	cop	_	_
47	in	in	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
50	too	too	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	whine	whine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
55	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	yelp	yelp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	64	punct	_	_
58	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	64	cc	_	_
59	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	64	det	_	_
60	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	62	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	60	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	drawn	draw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	64	amod	_	_
63	snoring	snoring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	64	compound	_	_
64	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	70	punct	_	_
66	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	70	cc	_	_
67	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	70	det	_	_
68	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	70	amod	_	_
69	purring	purring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	70	compound	_	_
70	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
71	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	79	punct	_	_
72	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	79	cc	_	_
73	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	74	det	_	_
74	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	79	nsubj	_	_
75	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	79	nsubj	_	_
76	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	79	cop	_	_
77	like	like	ADP	IN	_	79	case	_	_
78	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	79	det	_	_
79	squeal	squeal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	conj	_	_
80	of	of	ADP	IN	_	83	case	_	_
81	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	83	det	_	_
82	rusty	rusty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	83	amod	_	_
83	hinge	hinge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	79	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
84	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	87	punct	_	_
85	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	87	cc	_	_
86	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	87	expl	_	_
87	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	parataxis	_	_
88	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	89	amod	_	_
89	noises	noise	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	87	nsubj	_	_
90	in	in	ADP	IN	_	91	case	_	_
91	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	89	nmod	_	_
92	also	also	ADV	RB	_	87	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
93	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	53	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | dog | a growl nor a grunt and a yowl nor a groan and one sound |  |  |  | both *nmod* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | past | dog | a yowl nor a groan |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | dog |  |  |  |  | for one sound | tree rules |
| 4 | **make up** | participle |  | one sound *not said here* |  |  |  | of this sounds | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | past | a growl nor a grunt and a yowl nor a groan and one sound | a whine and a yelp and a drawn snoring noise and a deep purring noise and the squeal |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **draw** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is** | past | a noise |  |  |  |  | like the squeal; of a rusty hinge | tree rules |
| 8 | **be** | past | other noises in dog |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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