---
title: When they related the tale of their defeat, old men shook their head… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: When they related the tale of their defeat, old men shook their heads and groaned, and the women uttered cries and lamentations. Who acts: inhabitants, old men, women, defeat. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Terror of the Country.—roderick Rouses Himself to Arm
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Terror of the Country.—roderick Rouses Himself to Arms., sentence 3

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When they related the tale of their defeat, old men shook their heads and groaned, and the women uttered cries and lamentations.

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**Who acts:** inhabitants, old men, women, defeat · **What happens:** relate, shake, groan, utter, tell, defeat · **To what, where:** tale, heads, cries · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Terror of the Country.—roderick Rouses Himself to Arms.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (inhabitants, old men, women, defeat), 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:pg77685:14:3
# text = When they related the tale of their defeat, old men shook their heads and groaned, and the women uttered cries and lamentations.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	related	relate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	defeat	defeat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	groaned	groan	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	uttered	utter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
22	cries	cry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	lamentations	lamentation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **relate** | past | inhabitants *= inhabitant* | the tale of inhabitants's defeat |  |  |  |  | vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tale=Theme |
| 2 | **shake** | past | old men | inhabitants's heads |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 3 | **groan** | past | old men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **utter** *speech: other* | past | the women | cries and lamentations |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent cry=Topic |
| 5 | **tell** |  | inhabitants's defeat |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=agent |
| 6 | **defeat** |  | inhabitants *= inhabitant* |  |  |  |  |  | nom defeat «event transitive»: poss=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 of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Project Gutenberg book 77685 (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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