---
title: He climbed a marble flight of steps, and went on over costly carpets… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: He climbed a marble flight of steps, and went on over costly carpets, so soft and smooth that he could not hear his own steps. Who acts: fish. 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 c
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 14, sentence 77

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He climbed a marble flight of steps, and went on over costly carpets, so soft and smooth that he could not hear his own steps.

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**Who acts:** fish · **What happens:** climb, go on, not hear, step · **To what, where:** marble flight, costly carpets, own steps

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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 (fish), 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:pg74323:15:77
# text = He climbed a marble flight of steps, and went on over costly carpets, so soft and smooth that he could not hear his own steps.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	climbed	climb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	marble	marble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	on	on	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	over	over	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	costly	costly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	carpets	carpet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **climb** | past | fish | a marble flight of steps |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location flight=Theme |
| 2 | **go on** | past | fish *not said here* |  |  | costly carpets |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme over carpet=Location |
| 3 | **not** **hear** | could | fish | fish's own steps |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer step=Stimulus |
| 4 | **step** |  | fish |  |  |  |  |  | nom step «act 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:** «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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