---
title: “Why pause,” cried he, “at this precious moment? — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why pause,” cried he, “at this precious moment? Who acts: pause. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Chapter I., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Chapter I., sentence 34

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“Why pause,” cried he, “at this precious moment?

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**Who acts:** pause · **What happens:** cry · **To what, where:** Julian

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Chapter I.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pause), 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:pg77685:22:34
# text = “Why pause,” cried he, “at this precious moment?
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
3	pause	pause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
12	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | pause | Julian |  |  | moment |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic |

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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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- ← previous: [sentence 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/22/33/)
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