---
title: The silence of death reigned; only now and then the dark wings of so… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: The silence of death reigned; only now and then the dark wings of some nocturnal bird of prey fluttered over his head, and a ghostly rustling was heard among the dry underbrush; the stars seemed like silent, cold eyes looking down on the weary man and horses, the clouds scudded silently past, and th
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/11/110/)

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 10, sentence 110

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The silence of death reigned; only now and then the dark wings of some nocturnal bird of prey fluttered over his head, and a ghostly rustling was heard among the dry underbrush; the stars seemed like silent, cold eyes looking down on the weary man and horses, the clouds scudded silently past, and the snow, too, was silent as a spirit.

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**Who acts:** stars, silent cold eyes, clouds, snow · **What happens:** reign, flutter, hear, seem, look down, scud · **To what, where:** silence, prey, head, ghostly rustling, death

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stars, silent cold eyes, clouds, snow), 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:pg74323:11:110
# text = The silence of death reigned; only now and then the dark wings of some nocturnal bird of prey fluttered over his head, and a ghostly rustling was heard among the dry underbrush; the stars seemed like silent, cold eyes looking down on the weary man and horses, the clouds scudded silently past, and the snow, too, was silent as a spirit.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	reigned	reign	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
16	nocturnal	nocturnal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	prey	prey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	ghostly	ghostly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	rustling	rustling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
31	among	among	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	underbrush	underbrush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj	_	_
38	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
39	like	like	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
40	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
42	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	_
44	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	43	acl	_	_
45	down	down	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
46	on	on	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
48	weary	weary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	nsubj	_	_
55	scudded	scud	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	_
56	silently	silently	ADV	RB	_	57	advmod	_	_
57	past	past	ADV	RB	_	55	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
59	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	61	cc	_	_
60	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
61	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	66	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	63	punct	_	_
63	too	too	ADV	RB	_	61	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
65	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	66	cop	_	_
66	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	parataxis	_	_
67	as	as	ADP	IN	_	69	case	_	_
68	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	69	det	_	_
69	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	66	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
70	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reign** | participle · passive |  | the silence of death |  |  | now; then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **flutter** | participle |  | prey *not said here* |  | bird's head |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over head=Location |
| 3 | **hear** | past · passive |  | a ghostly rustling |  |  |  | among the dry underbrush | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 4 | **seem** | past | the stars |  |  |  |  | like silent cold eyes | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **look down** | gerund | silent cold eyes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on the weary man and horses; down *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on man=Theme |
| 6 | **scud** | past | the clouds |  |  |  |  | past *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **is** | past | the snow |  |  |  |  | as a spirit; silent *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **silence** |  |  | death |  |  |  |  | nom silence «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Project Gutenberg book 74323 (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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