---
title: So saying, he again commanded the guardians to unlock the portal. — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: So saying, he again commanded the guardians to unlock the portal. Who acts: mystery. 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 23

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So saying, he again commanded the guardians to unlock the portal.

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**Who acts:** mystery · **What happens:** say, command, unlock · **To what, where:** guardians, portal · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (mystery), 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:pg77685:8:23
# text = So saying, he again commanded the guardians to unlock the portal.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	again	again	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	guardians	guardian	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	unlock	unlock	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	portal	portal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **command** | past | mystery | the guardians |  |  | again |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent guardian=Eventuality |
| 3 | **unlock** | to-infinitive | mystery *not said here* | the portal |  |  |  |  | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent portal=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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