---
title: They then undermined it, supporting its foundations by stanchions of… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: They then undermined it, supporting its foundations by stanchions of wood. Who acts: soldiers. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Legend of Count Julian and His Family., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Legend of Count Julian and His Family., sentence 93

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They then undermined it, supporting its foundations by stanchions of wood.

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**Who acts:** soldiers · **What happens:** undermine, support · **To what, where:** tower, foundations

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Legend of Count Julian and His Family.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (soldiers), 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:pg77685:39:93
# text = They then undermined it, supporting its foundations by stanchions of wood.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	undermined	undermine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	supporting	support	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	foundations	foundation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	stanchions	stanchion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **undermine** | past | soldiers *= soldier* | tower |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **support** | gerund | soldiers *= soldier* *not said here* | tower's foundations |  |  |  | by stanchions of wood | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer foundation=Stimulus |

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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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