---
title: They went on, therefore, but in low spirits, and at last they saw th… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They went on, therefore, but in low spirits, and at last they saw the walls of the king’s castle towering before them, and a noble company going to and fro on the lawn. Who acts: Mongan, castle, noble company. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XVIII, with its dependency tr
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XVIII, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They went on, therefore, but in low spirits, and at last they saw the walls of the king’s castle towering before them, and a noble company going to and fro on the lawn.

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**Who acts:** Mongan, castle, noble company · **What happens:** go on, see, tower, go, fro · **To what, where:** low spirits, walls, last, lawn

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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 (Mongan, castle, noble company), 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:pg2892:89:48
# text = They went on, therefore, but in low spirits, and at last they saw the walls of the king’s castle towering before them, and a noble company going to and fro on the lawn.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	obl	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
24	towering	tower	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
25	before	before	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	noble	noble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
32	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	acl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	fixed	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	fro	fro	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	conj	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	lawn	lawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go on** | past | Mongan |  |  | low spirits |  | therefore *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in spirit=Location |
| 2 | **see** | past | Mongan | the walls of the king's castle |  | last |  | a noble company *obl* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wall=Stimulus |
| 3 | **tower** | gerund | the king's castle *not said here* |  |  |  | before Mongan |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before they=Location |
| 4 | **go** | gerund | a noble company *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fro** | infinitive | a noble company *not said here* |  |  | the lawn |  |  | 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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