---
title: At the critical moment of her fortunes her great ones began to babbl… — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: At the critical moment of her fortunes her great ones began to babble and talk nonsense. A sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age, Opening, part 1, sentence 98

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At the critical moment of her fortunes her great ones began to babble and talk nonsense.

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**What happens:** begin, babble, talk · **To what, where:** nonsense

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This is a sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78491:1:102
# text = At the critical moment of her fortunes her great ones began to babble and talk nonsense.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	critical	critical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	fortunes	fortune	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
8	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	appos	_	_
11	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	babble	babble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
16	nonsense	nonsense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  | moment |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **babble** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **talk** | infinitive |  | nonsense |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent nonsense=Patient |

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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:** «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Project Gutenberg book 78491 (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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