---
title: But, lo! scarcely were the haughty words uttered, when a cooing and… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: But, lo! scarcely were the haughty words uttered, when a cooing and a fluttering of wings were heard. Who acts: wings. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 14, sentence 42

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But, lo! scarcely were the haughty words uttered, when a cooing and a fluttering of wings were heard.

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**Who acts:** wings · **What happens:** be, utter, hear, flutter · **To what, where:** haughty words, cooing

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., 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 (wings), 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:pg74323:15:42
# text = But, lo! scarcely were the haughty words uttered, when a cooing and a fluttering of wings were heard.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
3	lo	lo	INTJ	UH	_	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
5	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	haughty	haughty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
10	uttered	utter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cooing	cooing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fluttering	fluttering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the haughty words |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **utter** *speech: other* | participle |  | the haughty words *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **hear** | past · passive |  | a cooing and a fluttering of wings |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 4 | **flutter** |  | wings |  |  |  |  |  | nom fluttering «event intransitive»: of=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:** «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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