---
title: "There is an endless primeval matter, I may say the Urkraft--first c… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: "There is an endless primeval matter, I may say the Urkraft--first cause--of all things, which is scattered in countless atoms in eternal space. Who acts: endless primeval matter, truth. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 4, with its de
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/5/22/)

<!-- 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/) / [Legends and Tales., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/5/) / 22

# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 4, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"There is an endless primeval matter, I may say the Urkraft--first cause--of all things, which is scattered in countless atoms in eternal space.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** endless primeval matter, truth · **What happens:** be, say, scatter, cause · **To what, where:** Urkraft, cause, countless atoms, things · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (endless primeval matter, truth), 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:pg74323:5:22
# text = "There is an endless primeval matter, I may say the Urkraft--first cause--of all things, which is scattered in countless atoms in eternal space.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	endless	endless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	primeval	primeval	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Urkraft	Urkraft	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	16	advmod	_	_
16	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	det	_	_
20	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	countless	countless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	atoms	atom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	eternal	eternal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *in a quote* | present | a endless primeval matter |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | may | truth | the Urkraft |  |  |  | cause of all things *parataxis* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent urkraft=Topic |
| 3 | **scatter** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | cause of all things |  | countless atoms |  | in eternal space | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in atom=Destination |
| 4 | **cause** *in a quote* |  |  | all things |  |  |  |  | nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/5/21/)
- next →: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/5/23/)
- ↑ back to [Legends and Tales., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/5/)