---
title: When they got to the middle of the bridge it broke under them, and t… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When they got to the middle of the bridge it broke under them, and they were precipitated into that boiling yellow flood. Who acts: gods, Da’v. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XV, sentence 39

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When they got to the middle of the bridge it broke under them, and they were precipitated into that boiling yellow flood.

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**Who acts:** gods, Da’v · **What happens:** get, break, precipitate, boil · **To what, where:** bridge, gods, boiling yellow flood

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gods, Da’v), 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:pg2892:86:39
# text = When they got to the middle of the bridge it broke under them, and they were precipitated into that boiling yellow flood.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	under	under	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	precipitated	precipitate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	nsubj	_	_
21	boiling	boil	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	amod	_	_
22	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	flood	flood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | gods *= god* |  |  |  |  | to the middle of the bridge *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to middle=Result |
| 2 | **break** | past | Da’v *= da'v* | the bridge *not said here* |  |  |  | under gods *= god* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bridge=Patient |
| 3 | **precipitate** | past · passive |  | gods *= god* |  | boiling yellow flood |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **boil** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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- ← previous: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/86/38/)
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- ↑ back to [Chapter XV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/86/)