---
title: Merciless creditors threatened with seizure; entire ruin stared him… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: Merciless creditors threatened with seizure; entire ruin stared him in the face; he saw himself already in fancy with wife and children abandoned to bitter want. Who acts: Merciless creditors, ruin. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 4,
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, A Historical Tale., part 4, sentence 79

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Merciless creditors threatened with seizure; entire ruin stared him in the face; he saw himself already in fancy with wife and children abandoned to bitter want.

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**Who acts:** Merciless creditors, ruin · **What happens:** threaten, stare, see, abandon, want · **To what, where:** Merciless creditors, ruin, face, fancy, children

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Merciless creditors, ruin), 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:pg74323:21:79
# text = Merciless creditors threatened with seizure; entire ruin stared him in the face; he saw himself already in fancy with wife and children abandoned to bitter want.
1	Merciless	merciless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	creditors	creditor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
3	threatened	threaten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	seizure	seizure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	entire	entire	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	ruin	ruin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	_
18	already	already	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	fancy	fancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	_
25	abandoned	abandon	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	bitter	bitter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
28	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **threaten** | participle |  | Merciless creditors *not said here* |  |  |  | with seizure | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **stare** | past | Merciless creditors | ruin |  | the face |  | entire ruin *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | past | ruin | ruin |  | fancy with wife and children |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer himself=Stimulus |
| 4 | **abandon** | participle |  | children *not said here* |  |  |  | bitter *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **want** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

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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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