--- title: At this moment the Abbess with her nuns came forward, when lo, a fla… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics description: At this moment the Abbess with her nuns came forward, when lo, a flash of lightning lit up the darkness; the lovers stood in a sea of dazzling light; it seemed to them they saw heaven open. Who acts: Abbess, flash, lovers, sea. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/4/19/) [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/) / [Legends and Tales., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/4/) / 19 # Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 3, sentence 19 At this moment the Abbess with her nuns came forward, when lo, a flash of lightning lit up the darkness; the lovers stood in a sea of dazzling light; it seemed to them they saw heaven open. **Who acts:** Abbess, flash, lovers, sea, it, lightning · **What happens:** come forward, lit up, stand, dazzle, seem, see · **To what, where:** darkness, sea, light, lovers, heaven This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., 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 (Abbess, flash, lovers, sea), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg74323:4:19 # text = At this moment the Abbess with her nuns came forward, when lo, a flash of lightning lit up the darkness; the lovers stood in a sea of dazzling light; it seemed to them they saw heaven open. 1 At at ADP IN _ 3 case _ _ 2 this this DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 3 det _ _ 3 moment moment NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ _ 4 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 5 Abbess Abbess PROPN NNP Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ _ 6 with with ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 7 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 8 nmod:poss _ _ 8 nuns nun NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 nmod _ _ 9 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 10 forward forward ADV RB _ 9 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 11 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 12 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 16 advmod _ _ 13 lo lo INTJ UH _ 16 discourse _ SpaceAfter=No 14 , , PUNCT , _ 13 punct _ _ 15 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 flash flash NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 conj _ _ 17 of of ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 18 lightning lightning NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 nmod _ _ 19 lit lit VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 16 acl _ _ 20 up up ADP RP _ 19 compound:prt _ _ 21 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 22 darkness darkness NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 23 ; ; PUNCT : _ 26 punct _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 lovers lover NOUN NNS Number=Plur 26 nsubj _ _ 26 stood stand VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 conj _ _ 27 in in ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 28 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 sea sea NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 obl _ _ 30 of of SCONJ IN _ 31 mark _ _ 31 dazzling dazzle VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 29 acl _ _ 32 light light NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 33 ; ; PUNCT : _ 35 punct _ _ 34 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 nsubj _ _ 35 seemed seem VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 26 conj _ _ 36 to to ADP IN _ 37 case _ _ 37 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 obl _ _ 38 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 39 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 35 xcomp _ _ 40 heaven heaven NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obj _ _ 41 open open ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 42 . . PUNCT . _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **come forward** | past | the Abbess with Abbess's nuns | | | | moment | a flash of lightning *conj*; forward *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **lit up** | participle | a flash of lightning *not said here* | the darkness | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **stand** | past | the lovers | | | a sea | | | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in sea=Location | | 4 | **dazzle** | gerund | a sea *not said here* | light | | | | | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus light=Experiencer | | 5 | **seem** | past | it | | lovers *= lover* | | | | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute | | 6 | **see** | past | lovers *= lover* | heaven | | | | open *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer heaven=Stimulus | | 7 | **flash** | | lightning | | | | | | nom flash «event intransitive»: of=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/4/18/) - next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/4/20/) - ↑ back to [Legends and Tales., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/4/)