---
title: He touched her with his finger, and the instant he touched her all d… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He touched her with his finger, and the instant he touched her all dilapidation and wryness and age went from her, and she became so beautiful that one dared scarcely look on her, and so young that she seemed but sixteen years of age. Who acts: Mongan, instant, dilapidation, one. A sentence of «Iris
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/90/42/)

<!-- 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 XIX](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/90/) / 42

# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIX, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He touched her with his finger, and the instant he touched her all dilapidation and wryness and age went from her, and she became so beautiful that one dared scarcely look on her, and so young that she seemed but sixteen years of age.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mongan, instant, dilapidation, one · **What happens:** touch, go, become, look, seem · **To what, where:** cat

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIX. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mongan, instant, dilapidation, one), 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:pg2892:90:42
# text = He touched her with his finger, and the instant he touched her all dilapidation and wryness and age went from her, and she became so beautiful that one dared scarcely look on her, and so young that she seemed but sixteen years of age.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	dilapidation	dilapidation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	wryness	wryness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
20	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nsubj	_	_
31	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
34	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	so	so	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	advcl	_	_
40	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
41	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	ccomp	_	_
43	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	sixteen	sixteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	45	nummod	_	_
45	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	conj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **touch** | past | Mongan | cat |  |  |  | with Mongan's finger | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent she=Experiencer with finger=Instrument |
| 2 | **touch** | past | the instant | cat |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme she=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **go** | past | all dilapidation and wryness and age |  |  |  |  | from instant | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme from she=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **become** | past | instant |  |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **look** | past | one |  |  |  |  | on instant; scarcely *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on she=Theme |
| 6 | **seem** | past | instant |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/90/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/90/43/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter XIX](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/90/)