---
title: The king alighted, and, approaching the portals, ordered the guardia… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: The king alighted, and, approaching the portals, ordered the guardians to unlock the gate. Who acts: king, guardians. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., sentence 16

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The king alighted, and, approaching the portals, ordered the guardians to unlock the gate.

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**Who acts:** king, guardians · **What happens:** alight, approach, order, unlock · **To what, where:** king, portals, guardians, gate

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, guardians), 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:pg77685:8:16
# text = The king alighted, and, approaching the portals, ordered the guardians to unlock the gate.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
3	alighted	alight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	csubj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	portals	portal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
11	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	guardians	guardian	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	unlock	unlock	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **alight** | participle |  | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **approach** | gerund |  | the portals |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent portal=Theme |
| 3 | **order** | past | the king | the guardians |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent guardian=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **unlock** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the guardians *not said here* | the gate |  |  |  |  | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gate=Patient |

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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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