---
title: “It may be the sun,” replied mac an Da’v, peering curiously at the g… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “It may be the sun,” replied mac an Da’v, peering curiously at the golden radiance that dozed about them, “but maybe it’s a yellow fog.” Who acts: sun, sun replied mac, golden radiance. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XVIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XVIII, sentence 14

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“It may be the sun,” replied mac an Da’v, peering curiously at the golden radiance that dozed about them, “but maybe it’s a yellow fog.”

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**Who acts:** sun, sun replied mac, golden radiance · **What happens:** be, reply, peer, doze · **To what, where:** sun, yellow fog · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XVIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sun, sun replied mac, golden radiance), 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:pg2892:89:14
# text = “It may be the sun,” replied mac an Da’v, peering curiously at the golden radiance that dozed about them, “but maybe it’s a yellow fog.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
10	mac	mac	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Da’v	Da'v	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	peering	peer	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
15	curiously	curiously	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	radiance	radiance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	dozed	doze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
25	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
27	maybe	maybe	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	fog	fog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | may | sun | the sun |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **peer** | gerund | sun replied mac *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the golden radiance; curiously *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at radiance=Theme |
| 4 | **doze** | past | the golden radiance |  |  |  |  | about territories *= territory* | vn snooze-40.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | sun | a yellow fog |  |  |  | maybe *property* | 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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