---
title: At night he often lights a torch (evidently the _ignis fatuus_ or Ja… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: At night he often lights a torch (evidently the _ignis fatuus_ or Jack-a-lantern) and swings it on the marshes to decoy the unwary into his toils.] Who acts: hé, Jack. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 4, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 4, sentence 99

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At night he often lights a torch (evidently the \_ignis fatuus\_ or Jack-a-lantern) and swings it on the marshes to decoy the unwary into his toils.\]

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**Who acts:** hé, Jack · **What happens:** light, lantern, swing, decoy, toil · **To what, where:** torch, marshes, unwary, toils

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, In the Measure of Hiawatha, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hé, Jack), 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:pg8122:21:99
# text = At night he often lights a torch (evidently the _ignis fatuus_ or Jack-a-lantern) and swings it on the marshes to decoy the unwary into his toils.]
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	often	often	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	lights	light	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	torch	torch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	evidently	evidently	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	_	_	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	ignis	ignis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	fatuus	fatuu	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	13	punct	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	lantern	lantern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	13	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	swings	swing	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	marshes	marsh	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	decoy	decoy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	unwary	unwary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	obj	_	_
32	into	into	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	toils	toil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **light** | present | hé | a torch |  |  | night | often *property* | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent torch=Product |
| 2 | **lantern** |  | Jack |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **swing** | present | hé *not said here* | torch |  | the marshes |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent it=Theme on marsh=Location |
| 4 | **decoy** | to-infinitive | hé *not said here* | the unwary |  | hé's toils |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **toil** |  | hé |  |  |  |  |  | nom toil «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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