---
title: They were pursued with dreadful slaughter, until the darkness of the… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: They were pursued with dreadful slaughter, until the darkness of the night rendered it impossible to distinguish friend from foe. Who acts: darkness. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Last Day of the Battle., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Last Day of the Battle., sentence 55

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They were pursued with dreadful slaughter, until the darkness of the night rendered it impossible to distinguish friend from foe.

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**Who acts:** darkness · **What happens:** pursue, render, distinguish · **To what, where:** bands, slaughter, friend

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Last Day of the Battle.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (darkness), 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:pg77685:18:55
# text = They were pursued with dreadful slaughter, until the darkness of the night rendered it impossible to distinguish friend from foe.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	slaughter	slaughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	rendered	render	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	foe	foe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pursue** | past · passive |  | bands *= band* |  |  |  | with dreadful slaughter | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **render** | past | the darkness of the night | slaughter |  |  |  | impossible *property* | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **distinguish** | to-infinitive | the darkness of the night *not said here* | friend |  |  |  | from foe | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent friend=Theme from foe=Co-Theme |

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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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