---
title: In Deirdré’s absence, if a leaf but stirred She shook; and endless t… — The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of I… · tree and pragmatics
description: In Deirdré’s absence, if a leaf but stirred She shook; and endless tales, and legends told To keep her young lamb safe within the fold. Who acts: child, legends, Deirdré. A sentence of «The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age» by Aubrey De Vere, Opening, part 3, with its 
---

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# The foray of Queen Meave, and other legends of Ireland's heroic age, Opening, part 3, sentence 46

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In Deirdré’s absence, if a leaf but stirred She shook; and endless tales, and legends told To keep her young lamb safe within the fold.

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**Who acts:** child, legends, Deirdré · **What happens:** stir, shake, tell, keep, absent · **To what, where:** legends, young lamb, absence · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (child, legends, Deirdré), 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:pg78491:3:46
# text = In Deirdré’s absence, if a leaf but stirred She shook; and endless tales, and legends told To keep her young lamb safe within the fold.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	Deirdré	Deirdré	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	stirred	stir	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
11	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	endless	endless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	legends	legend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	conj	_	_
20	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	To	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	_
27	within	within	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	fold	fold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stir** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **shake** | past | child |  |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | participle |  | legends *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **keep** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | legends *not said here* | child's young lamb |  |  |  | safe *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lamb=Theme |
| 6 | **absent** |  | Deirdré |  |  |  |  |  | nom absence «state transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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