---
title: Bands of boys who whispered mysteriously together and pointed with t… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Bands of boys who whispered mysteriously together and pointed with their fingers in every direction at once, and would suddenly begin to run like a herd of stampeded horses. Who acts: boys, Bands. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/85/10/)

<!-- 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 XIV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/85/) / 10

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIV, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Bands of boys who whispered mysteriously together and pointed with their fingers in every direction at once, and would suddenly begin to run like a herd of stampeded horses.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boys, Bands · **What happens:** whisper, point, begin, run, stampede · **To what, where:** direction

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boys, Bands), 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:pg2892:85:10
# text = Bands of boys who whispered mysteriously together and pointed with their fingers in every direction at once, and would suddenly begin to run like a herd of stampeded horses.
1	Bands	band	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	mysteriously	mysteriously	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	together	together	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	pointed	point	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	stampeded	stampede	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	amod	_	_
30	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | boys |  |  | every direction |  | with Bands's fingers; together *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with finger=Theme |
| 2 | **point** | participle | boys *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **begin** | would | Bands of boys |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **run** | to-infinitive | Bands of boys *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a herd of stampeded horses | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **stampede** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- 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 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/85/9/)
- next →: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/85/11/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter XIV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/85/)