---
title: Nay, nearer and nearer they glide, like ghosts on the fields of thei… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: Nay, nearer and nearer they glide, like ghosts on the fields of their battles, Till close on the sleepers, they bide but the signal of death from Tamdóka. Who acts: Frenchmen. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 6, with its dependency tr
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 6, sentence 10

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Nay, nearer and nearer they glide, like ghosts on the fields of their battles, Till close on the sleepers, they bide but the signal of death from Tamdóka.

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**Who acts:** Frenchmen · **What happens:** glide, bide, battle, signal · **To what, where:** Tamdóka, death

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Frenchmen), 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:pg8122:13:10
# text = Nay, nearer and nearer they glide, like ghosts on the fields of their battles, Till close on the sleepers, they bide but the signal of death from Tamdóka.
1	Nay	nay	INTJ	UH	_	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	nearer	near	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	glide	glide	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	ghosts	ghost	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fields	field	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	battles	battle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	Till	till	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	sleepers	sleeper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	bide	bide	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	signal	signal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
31	from	from	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	Tamdóka	Tamdóka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **glide** | present | Frenchmen *= frenchman* |  |  |  |  | like ghosts on the fields of Frenchmen's battles; near *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **bide** | present | Frenchmen *= frenchman* |  |  | Tamdóka |  | the signal of death *conj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **battle** |  | Frenchmen *= frenchman* |  |  |  |  |  | nom battle «act transitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **signal** |  |  | death |  |  |  |  | nom signal «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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 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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