---
title: In the distance one could see during the night, especially at midnig… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: In the distance one could see during the night, especially at midnight, now fiery balls, now flames of fire rising in the air, and could hear death cries, or the most delightful tones, which the evil spirits employed to decoy unwary mortals to destruction. Who acts: fire, delightful tones. A sentenc
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/9/39/)

<!-- 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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/9/) / 39

# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 8, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the distance one could see during the night, especially at midnight, now fiery balls, now flames of fire rising in the air, and could hear death cries, or the most delightful tones, which the evil spirits employed to decoy unwary mortals to destruction.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fire, delightful tones · **What happens:** see, rise, hear, spirit, employ, decoy · **To what, where:** air, death cries, evil spirits, unwary mortals

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (fire, delightful tones), 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:pg74323:9:39
# text = In the distance one could see during the night, especially at midnight, now fiery balls, now flames of fire rising in the air, and could hear death cries, or the most delightful tones, which the evil spirits employed to decoy unwary mortals to destruction.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	during	during	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
16	fiery	fiery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	balls	ball	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
20	flames	flame	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	rising	rise	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	hear	hear	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
31	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	cries	cry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
36	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	37	advmod	_	_
37	delightful	delightful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	tones	tone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
40	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	43	nsubj	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	conj	_	_
44	employed	employ	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	43	acl	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	decoy	decoy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	xcomp	_	_
47	unwary	unwary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	mortals	mortal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obj	_	_
49	to	to	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	destruction	destruction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could |  |  |  |  | midnight; night | in the distance one | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **rise** | gerund | fire *not said here* |  |  | the air |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in air=Location |
| 3 | **hear** | could |  | death cries  the delightful tones and the evil spirits |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer cry=Stimulus |
| 4 | **spirit** |  | the delightful tones and the evil spirits |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **employ** | participle |  | the evil spirits *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Attribute |
| 6 | **decoy** | to-infinitive |  | unwary mortals |  |  |  | to destruction | tree rules |
| 7 | **flame** |  | fire |  |  |  |  |  | nom flame «process intransitive»: of=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.

<!-- 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 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/9/38/)
- next →: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/9/40/)
- ↑ back to [Legends and Tales., part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/9/)