---
title: At this moment the serpent head raised itself, terrible to behold; t… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: At this moment the serpent head raised itself, terrible to behold; the scales of the coiled body seemed to bristle, and resembled a coat of mail; the vicious eyes burned in rage, and the sharp tongue pointed at them like a poisoned arrow. Who acts: serpent head, scales, vicious eyes. A sentence of «
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 5, sentence 57

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At this moment the serpent head raised itself, terrible to behold; the scales of the coiled body seemed to bristle, and resembled a coat of mail; the vicious eyes burned in rage, and the sharp tongue pointed at them like a poisoned arrow.

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**Who acts:** serpent head, scales, vicious eyes · **What happens:** raise, seem, bristle, resemble, burn, point · **To what, where:** head, coat, sharp tongue, rage

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (serpent head, scales, vicious eyes), 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:pg74323:6:57
# text = At this moment the serpent head raised itself, terrible to behold; the scales of the coiled body seemed to bristle, and resembled a coat of mail; the vicious eyes burned in rage, and the sharp tongue pointed at them like a poisoned arrow.
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	7	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	raised	raise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	10	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	scales	scale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	coiled	coiled	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
20	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	bristle	bristle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	resembled	resemble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	mail	mail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	vicious	vicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
34	burned	burn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	parataxis	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	rage	rage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
40	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
42	pointed	point	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	41	acl	_	_
43	at	at	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	obl	_	_
45	like	like	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	poisoned	poison	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	48	amod	_	_
48	arrow	arrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **raise** | past | the serpent head | head |  |  | moment |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Theme |
| 2 | **seem** | past | the scales of the coiled body |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **bristle** | to-infinitive | the scales of the coiled body *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn bulge-47.5.3 «NP V»: agent=Location |
| 4 | **resemble** | past | the serpent head *not said here* | a coat of mail |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **burn** | participle | the vicious eyes | the sharp tongue |  | rage |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in rage=Location |
| 6 | **point** | participle |  | the sharp tongue *not said here* |  |  |  | at eyes *= eye*; like a poisoned arrow | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **poison** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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