---
title: They had scarcely advanced a few paces, however, when they recoiled,… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: They had scarcely advanced a few paces, however, when they recoiled, overcome by the baleful air, or by some fearful vision. Who acts: fearful vision, knees. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., with its dependency tree
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/33/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Legends of the conquest of Spain](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/) / [Story of the Marvellous and Portentous…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/) / 33

# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They had scarcely advanced a few paces, however, when they recoiled, overcome by the baleful air, or by some fearful vision.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fearful vision, knees · **What happens:** advance, recoil, overcome · **To what, where:** knees

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (fearful vision, knees), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg77685:8:33
# text = They had scarcely advanced a few paces, however, when they recoiled, overcome by the baleful air, or by some fearful vision.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	advanced	advance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	paces	pace	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	however	however	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	recoiled	recoil	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	overcome	overcome	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	baleful	baleful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
24	fearful	fearful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	vision	vision	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **advance** | past · perfect · passive | some fearful vision | knees *= knee* |  |  |  | a few paces *obj*; scarcely *property* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent subject=Goal pace=Theme |
| 2 | **recoil** | past | knees *= knee* |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn flinch-40.5 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **overcome** | participle | some fearful vision *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by the baleful air | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/32/)
- next →: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/34/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/)