---
title: The king paused at sight of this appalling figure; for whether it we… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: The king paused at sight of this appalling figure; for whether it were a living being, or a statue of magic artifice, he could not tell. Who acts: king, figure. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., with its dependency t
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/37/)

<!-- 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/) / 37

# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The king paused at sight of this appalling figure; for whether it were a living being, or a statue of magic artifice, he could not tell.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, figure · **What happens:** pause, appal, be, not tell, sight · **To what, where:** sight, magic artifice, appalling figure · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (king, figure), 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:pg77685:8:37
# text = The king paused at sight of this appalling figure; for whether it were a living being, or a statue of magic artifice, he could not tell.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	paused	pause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
8	appalling	appal	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	amod	_	_
9	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
12	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
17	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	statue	statue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	artifice	artifice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pause** | past | the king |  |  | sight of this appalling figure |  | a statue of magic artifice *parataxis* | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at sight=Location |
| 2 | **appal** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | figure |  |  |  |  | for a living | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | King | magic artifice *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent artifice=Recipient |
| 5 | **sight** |  |  | this appalling figure |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/36/)
- next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/38/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/)