---
title: For three days the Arabian horsemen pursued the flying Christians, h… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: For three days the Arabian horsemen pursued the flying Christians, hunting them over the face of the country; so that but a scanty number of that mighty host escaped to tell the tale of their disaster. Who acts: Arabian horsemen, scanty number, disaster. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spa
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, The Field of Battle After the Defeat.—the Fate of Roderick., sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For three days the Arabian horsemen pursued the flying Christians, hunting them over the face of the country; so that but a scanty number of that mighty host escaped to tell the tale of their disaster.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Arabian horsemen, scanty number, disaster · **What happens:** pursue, fly, hunt, escape, tell · **To what, where:** flying Christians, horseman, face, tale · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, The Field of Battle After the Defeat.—the Fate of Roderick.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Arabian horsemen, scanty number, disaster), 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:pg77685:19:14
# text = For three days the Arabian horsemen pursued the flying Christians, hunting them over the face of the country; so that but a scanty number of that mighty host escaped to tell the tale of their disaster.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	Arabian	Arabian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	horsemen	horseman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	amod	_	_
10	Christians	Christian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	over	over	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
21	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	31	mark	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	fixed	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	scanty	scanty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	det	_	_
29	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	host	host	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
31	escaped	escape	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	disaster	disaster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pursue** | past | the Arabian horsemen | the flying Christians |  |  | day |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent christian=Theme |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hunt** | gerund | the Arabian horsemen *not said here* | horseman |  | the face of the country |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme over face=Location |
| 4 | **escape** | past | a scanty number of that mighty host |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | a scanty number of that mighty host *not said here* | the tale of horseman's disaster |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient |
| 6 | **tell** |  | horseman's disaster |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication 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.

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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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