---
title: Unsteady his steps were and slow, and he walked with a staff in his… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: Unsteady his steps were and slow, and he walked with a staff in his right hand, And white as the first-falling snow were the thin locks that lay on his shoulders. Who acts: Unsteady steps, Rice, thin locks. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins.,
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 3, sentence 4

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Unsteady his steps were and slow, and he walked with a staff in his right hand, And white as the first-falling snow were the thin locks that lay on his shoulders.

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**Who acts:** Unsteady steps, Rice, thin locks · **What happens:** be, walk, fall, lay, step · **To what, where:** right hand, shoulders

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Unsteady steps, Rice, thin locks), 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:pg8122:10:4
# text = Unsteady his steps were and slow, and he walked with a staff in his right hand, And white as the first-falling snow were the thin locks that lay on his shoulders.
1	Unsteady	unsteady	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
23	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	25	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	amod	_	_
26	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
27	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	locks	lock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
31	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
32	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Rice's Unsteady steps |  |  |  |  | slow *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **walk** | past | Rice |  |  | Rice's right hand |  | with a staff | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=Trajectory |
| 3 | **be** |  | Rice's Unsteady steps *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as the falling snow | tree rules |
| 4 | **fall** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **be** | past | the thin locks |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **lay** | present | the thin locks |  |  | Rice's shoulders |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on shoulder=Destination |
| 7 | **step** |  | Rice |  |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Project Gutenberg book 8122 (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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