---
title: They are off without bending of their feet or stopping of their step… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They are off without bending of their feet or stopping of their step, without heed or respect to me, and I am without power to keep up to them or opportunity to turn them back this night." Who acts: Deirdre, I. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of Deirdre, with its depen
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/13/172/)

<!-- 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/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/) / [The Story of Deirdre](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/13/) / 172

# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story of Deirdre, sentence 172

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They are off without bending of their feet or stopping of their step, without heed or respect to me, and I am without power to keep up to them or opportunity to turn them back this night."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Deirdre, I · **What happens:** bend, stop, be, keep up, turn back, step · **To what, where:** Deirdre

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of Deirdre. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Deirdre, I), 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:pg7885:13:172
# text = They are off without bending of their feet or stopping of their step, without heed or respect to me, and I am without power to keep up to them or opportunity to turn them back this night."
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	off	off	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	bending	bend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	stopping	stop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	without	without	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	heed	heed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	respect	respect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	without	without	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl	_	_
29	up	up	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	_
32	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	acl	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	_
37	back	back	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
38	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	39	det	_	_
39	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bend** | present · progressive | Deirdre |  |  |  |  | of Deirdre's feet; off *property* | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme of foot=Location |
| 2 | **stop** | gerund | Deirdre *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of Deirdre's step; without heed or respect to me | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | without power | tree rules |
| 4 | **keep up** | to-infinitive | Deirdre *not said here* |  | Deirdre |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **turn back** | to-infinitive | Deirdre *not said here* | Deirdre |  |  | night |  | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 6 | **step** |  | Deirdre |  |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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 171](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/13/171/)
- next →: [sentence 173](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/13/173/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Deirdre](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/13/)