---
title: What would become of my children?" she cried, wringing her hands in… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: What would become of my children?" she cried, wringing her hands in anguish. Who acts: Eva. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, A Historical Tale., part 3, sentence 82

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What would become of my children?" she cried, wringing her hands in anguish.

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**Who acts:** Eva · **What happens:** become, cry, wring · **To what, where:** hands, anguish · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Eva), 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:pg74323:20:82
# text = What would become of my children?" she cried, wringing her hands in anguish.
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	wringing	wring	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	anguish	anguish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | would |  |  |  |  |  | of my children; What *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* *in a quote* | past | Eva |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **wring** *in a quote* | gerund | Eva *not said here* | Eva's hands |  | anguish |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent hand=Theme in anguish=Trajectory |

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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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