---
title: It held a huge mace, which it whirled incessantly, giving such cruel… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: It held a huge mace, which it whirled incessantly, giving such cruel and resounding blows upon the earth as to prevent all further entrance. Who acts: figure, huge mace. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., with its dep
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., sentence 36

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It held a huge mace, which it whirled incessantly, giving such cruel and resounding blows upon the earth as to prevent all further entrance.

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**Who acts:** figure, huge mace · **What happens:** hold, whirl, give, prevent · **To what, where:** huge mace, such cruel blows, further entrance

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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 (figure, huge mace), 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:pg77685:8:36
# text = It held a huge mace, which it whirled incessantly, giving such cruel and resounding blows upon the earth as to prevent all further entrance.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	mace	mace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	whirled	whirl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	incessantly	incessantly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	giving	give	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
13	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
14	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	resounding	resounding	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
17	blows	blow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
18	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
24	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	det	_	_
25	further	further	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	entrance	entrance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | figure | a huge mace |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mace=Theme |
| 2 | **whirl** | past | a huge mace |  |  |  |  | figure *nsubj*; incessantly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **give** | gerund | a huge mace *not said here* | such cruel blows |  |  |  | upon the earth | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blow=Theme |
| 4 | **prevent** | to-infinitive | a huge mace *not said here* | all further entrance |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer entrance=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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