---
title: Creatures of tender form and rare beauty--not so ethereal as the air… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: Creatures of tender form and rare beauty--not so ethereal as the air, not so material as man--danced lightly, as if borne by the breezes, through the woods, which were their possession, intimately interwoven with their existence, for they grew with the trees which they inhabited, and drooped and die
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/23/100/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/) / [A Historical Tale., part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/23/) / 100

# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, A Historical Tale., part 6, sentence 100

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Creatures of tender form and rare beauty--not so ethereal as the air, not so material as man--danced lightly, as if borne by the breezes, through the woods, which were their possession, intimately interwoven with their existence, for they grew with the trees which they inhabited, and drooped and died with them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** material, woods, men, trees · **What happens:** not dance, bear, be, interweave, grow, inhabit · **To what, where:** woods, possession, Creatures

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (material, woods, men, trees), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74323:23:101
# text = Creatures of tender form and rare beauty--not so ethereal as the air, not so material as man--danced lightly, as if borne by the breezes, through the woods, which were their possession, intimately interwoven with their existence, for they grew with the trees which they inhabited, and drooped and died with them.
1	Creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	tender	tender	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	rare	rare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	ethereal	ethereal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	appos	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
18	material	material	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
23	lightly	lightly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
27	borne	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	parataxis	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	breezes	breeze	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	through	through	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	woods	wood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj	_	_
37	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
38	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	possession	possession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	intimately	intimately	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	interwoven	interweave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	conj	_	_
43	with	with	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
47	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	49	mark	_	_
48	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
49	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	parataxis	_	_
50	with	with	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	obl	_	_
53	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	55	nsubj	_	_
54	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	nsubj	_	_
55	inhabited	inhabit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	52	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
57	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
58	drooped	droop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	conj	_	_
59	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	60	cc	_	_
60	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	58	conj	_	_
61	with	with	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
62	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **dance** | past | material as man |  |  |  |  | lightly *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **bear** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle |  |  |  | the woods and men's possession |  | by the breezes | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is a** | past | the woods and men's possession | men's possession |  |  |  | men *= man* *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 4 | **interweave** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | with men's existence; intimately *property* | vn amalgamate-22.2-2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Patient with existence=Co-Patient |
| 5 | **grow** | past | men *= man* |  |  |  |  | with the trees | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **inhabit** | past | the trees |  |  |  |  | men *= man* *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 7 | **droop** | past | men *= man* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **die** | past | men *= man* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with men *= man* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 10 | **exist** |  | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | nom existence «state intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/23/99/)
- next →: [sentence 101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/23/101/)
- ↑ back to [A Historical Tale., part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/23/)