---
title: Oft with sudden spasm She strove to shake that viper from her breast… — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: Oft with sudden spasm She strove to shake that viper from her breast Which sucked its life-blood. Who acts: Vanity, breast. A sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age, Opening, part 14, sentence 109

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Oft with sudden spasm She strove to shake that viper from her breast Which sucked its life-blood.

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**Who acts:** Vanity, breast · **What happens:** strive, shake, suck · **To what, where:** sudden spasm, viper, breast, life blood

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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 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Vanity, breast), 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:pg78491:14:111
# text = Oft with sudden spasm She strove to shake that viper from her breast Which sucked its life-blood.
1	Oft	oft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	with	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	sudden	sudden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	spasm	spasm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	strove	strive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	shake	shake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	viper	viper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	breast	breast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	Which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	sucked	suck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
17	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strive** | past | Vanity | sudden spasm *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **shake** | to-infinitive | Vanity *not said here* | that viper |  | Vanity's breast |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent viper=Theme from breast=Trajectory |
| 3 | **suck** | past | Vanity's breast | breast's life blood |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent blood=Theme |

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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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