---
title: Letters were incessantly despatched to Damascus by either party, exa… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: Letters were incessantly despatched to Damascus by either party, exalting the merits of their own leader and decrying his rival. Who acts: party. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Chapter XIII., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Chapter XIII., sentence 6

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Letters were incessantly despatched to Damascus by either party, exalting the merits of their own leader and decrying his rival.

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**Who acts:** party · **What happens:** despatch, exalt, decry · **To what, where:** Letters, Damascus, merits, rival

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Chapter XIII.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (party), 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:pg77685:34:6
# text = Letters were incessantly despatched to Damascus by either party, exalting the merits of their own leader and decrying his rival.
1	Letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	incessantly	incessantly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	despatched	despatch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Damascus	Damascus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc:preconj	_	_
9	party	party	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	exalting	exalt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	merits	merit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	leader	leader	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	decrying	decry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	rival	rival	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **despatch** | past · passive | party | Letters | Damascus |  |  | incessantly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **exalt** | gerund | party *not said here* | the merits of Letters's own leader |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer merit=Stimulus |
| 3 | **decry** | gerund | party *not said here* | FEUD's rival |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rival=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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