---
title: For man may stumble in a furrow; the stag tumble from a cliff; the h… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: For man may stumble in a furrow; the stag tumble from a cliff; the hawk, wing-weary and beaten, with darkness around him and the storm behind, may dash his brains against a tree. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VIII, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For man may stumble in a furrow; the stag tumble from a cliff; the hawk, wing-weary and beaten, with darkness around him and the storm behind, may dash his brains against a tree.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** stumble, beat, dash · **To what, where:** stag tumble, furrow, brains

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg2892:9:28
# text = For man may stumble in a furrow; the stag tumble from a cliff; the hawk, wing-weary and beaten, with darkness around him and the storm behind, may dash his brains against a tree.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	stumble	stumble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	advcl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	furrow	furrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	stag	stag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	tumble	tumble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hawk	hawk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	wing	wing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	weary	weary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	acl:relcl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	beaten	beat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
27	around	around	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nmod	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	storm	storm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
32	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
34	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	dash	dash	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	brains	brain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	_
38	against	against	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stumble** | may | man | the stag tumble from a cliff |  | a furrow |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in furrow=Trajectory |
| 2 | **beat** | participle | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **dash** | may |  | hawk's brains |  |  |  | against a tree | vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent brain=Instrument against tree=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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