---
title: They beheld before them a great field of battle, where Christians an… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: They beheld before them a great field of battle, where Christians and Moslems were engaged in deadly conflict. Who acts: attendants. 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 ev
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., sentence 64

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They beheld before them a great field of battle, where Christians and Moslems were engaged in deadly conflict.

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**Who acts:** attendants · **What happens:** behold, engage · **To what, where:** great field, Christians, deadly conflict

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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 (attendants), 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:pg77685:8:64
# text = They beheld before them a great field of battle, where Christians and Moslems were engaged in deadly conflict.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	beheld	behold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	before	before	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	16	advmod	_	_
12	Christians	Christian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	Moslems	Moslem	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	engaged	engage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	deadly	deadly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	conflict	conflict	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **behold** | past | attendants *= attendant* | a great field of battle |  |  | before picture |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer field=Stimulus |
| 2 | **engage** | past · passive |  | Christians and Moslems |  |  |  | in deadly conflict *goal* | vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP PP.goal»: subject=Theme in conflict=Goal |

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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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