---
title: While they insist on preaching the old fables that nobody believes a… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: While they insist on preaching the old fables that nobody believes any more, I shall not go. Who acts: People, old fables, I. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 4, sentence 16

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While they insist on preaching the old fables that nobody believes any more, I shall not go.

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**Who acts:** People, old fables, I · **What happens:** insist, preach, believe, not go · **To what, where:** old fables

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., 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 (People, old fables, I), 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:pg74323:5:16
# text = While they insist on preaching the old fables that nobody believes any more, I shall not go.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	insist	insist	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	preaching	preach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	obl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	fables	fable	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	11	nsubj	_	_
11	believes	believe	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	any	any	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **insist** *speech: other* | present | People |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **preach** *speech: other* | gerund |  | the old fables |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fable=Topic |
| 3 | **believe** | present | the old fables |  |  |  |  | nobody *nsubj* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **not** **go** | shall | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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