---
title: On its breast was a scroll, whereon was inscribed in large letters,… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: On its breast was a scroll, whereon was inscribed in large letters, “I do my duty.” Who acts: King. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/38/)

<!-- 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/) / 38

# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On its breast was a scroll, whereon was inscribed in large letters, “I do my duty.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** be, inscribe, do · **To what, where:** scroll, breast, large letters, duty

<!-- .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), 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:pg77685:8:38
# text = On its breast was a scroll, whereon was inscribed in large letters, “I do my duty.”
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	breast	breast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	scroll	scroll	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	whereon	whereon	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	inscribed	inscribe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	duty	duty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a scroll |  | figure's breast |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **inscribe** | past · passive |  |  |  | large letters |  | whereon *property* | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme PP.destination»: in letter=Destination |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | present | King | my duty |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duty=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/37/)
- next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/39/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/8/)