---
title: One day, when he sat there as usual, a serpent came from under a sto… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: One day, when he sat there as usual, a serpent came from under a stone and looked kindly at him. Who acts: shepherd, serpent. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 8, 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 8, sentence 15

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One day, when he sat there as usual, a serpent came from under a stone and looked kindly at him.

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**Who acts:** shepherd, serpent · **What happens:** sit, come, look · **To what, where:** stone

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shepherd, serpent), 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:pg74323:25:15
# text = One day, when he sat there as usual, a serpent came from under a stone and looked kindly at him.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	under	under	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
20	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | shepherd |  |  | there | day | as usual | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **come** | past | a serpent |  |  | a stone |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from stone=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **look** | past | a serpent *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at shepherd; kindly *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=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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