---
title: The herdsman was not sure whether he was awake or dreaming. — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: The herdsman was not sure whether he was awake or dreaming. Who acts: herdsman, forest. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 8, 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 8, sentence 23

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The herdsman was not sure whether he was awake or dreaming.

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**Who acts:** herdsman, forest · **What happens:** not be, be, dream

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (herdsman, forest), 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:pg74323:9:23
# text = The herdsman was not sure whether he was awake or dreaming.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	herdsman	herdsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	awake	awake	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	ccomp	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	dreaming	dream	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | the herdsman |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | forest |  |  |  |  | awake *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **dream** | gerund | forest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |

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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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