---
title: There were two or three strangers staying in the house who had also… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: There were two or three strangers staying in the house who had also gone out, hence there was no one but the family at home. Who acts: two strangers, house, staying. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 4, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 4, sentence 61

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There were two or three strangers staying in the house who had also gone out, hence there was no one but the family at home.

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**Who acts:** two strangers, house, staying · **What happens:** be, stay, go out · **To what, where:** house, one

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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 (two strangers, house, staying), 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:pg74323:5:61
# text = There were two or three strangers staying in the house who had also gone out, hence there was no one but the family at home.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
4	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	conj	_	_
6	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
7	staying	stay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	csubj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	also	also	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	acl:relcl	_	_
15	out	out	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	hence	hence	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | two strangers |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **stay** | gerund |  |  |  | the house |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in house=Location |
| 3 | **go out** | past · perfect | the house |  |  |  |  |  | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | staying | no one but the family at home |  |  |  | the family at home *conj* | tree rules |

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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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