---
title: Behind came nurse Gretchen in snowy cap and apron, with a lovely bab… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: Behind came nurse Gretchen in snowy cap and apron, with a lovely babe in her arms, and both parents sprang forward as if each would be the first to seize the child. Who acts: nurse, parents, each. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 1, w
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, A Historical Tale., part 1, sentence 71

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Behind came nurse Gretchen in snowy cap and apron, with a lovely babe in her arms, and both parents sprang forward as if each would be the first to seize the child.

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**Who acts:** nurse, parents, each · **What happens:** come, sprang, be, seize · **To what, where:** snowy cap, child

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nurse, parents, each), 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:pg74323:18:71
# text = Behind came nurse Gretchen in snowy cap and apron, with a lovely babe in her arms, and both parents sprang forward as if each would be the first to seize the child.
1	Behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	Gretchen	Gretchen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	snowy	snowy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	cap	cap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	apron	apron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	babe	babe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	det	_	_
21	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	sprang	sprang	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
23	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
26	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	30	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	advcl	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	seize	seize	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | nurse |  |  | snowy cap and apron |  | with a lovely babe in nurse's arms | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in cap=Location |
| 2 | **sprang** | present | both parents |  |  |  |  | forward *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | would | each |  |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **seize** | to-infinitive | each *not said here* | the child |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Theme |

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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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