---
title: Sharp were the twangs of the hunters' bows, And swift and humming th… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: Sharp were the twangs of the hunters' bows, And swift and humming the arrows sped, Till ten huge bulls on the bloody snows Lay pierced with arrows and dumb and dead. Who acts: swift, bloody. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Heyóka Wacípee [16]--the Giant's Dance., w
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, Heyóka Wacípee \[16\]--the Giant's Dance., sentence 80

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Sharp were the twangs of the hunters' bows, And swift and humming the arrows sped, Till ten huge bulls on the bloody snows Lay pierced with arrows and dumb and dead.

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**Who acts:** swift, bloody · **What happens:** be, hum, speed, snow, pierce · **To what, where:** twangs, arrows, Lay, ten huge bulls

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Heyóka Wacípee \[16\]--the Giant's Dance.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (swift, bloody), 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:pg8122:7:80
# text = Sharp were the twangs of the hunters' bows, And swift and humming the arrows sped, Till ten huge bulls on the bloody snows Lay pierced with arrows and dumb and dead.
1	Sharp	sharp	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	twangs	twang	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	hunters	hunter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	'	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	bows	bow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	swift	swift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	humming	hum	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	arrows	arrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	sped	speed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	Till	till	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
21	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	bulls	bull	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
23	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	bloody	bloody	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	nsubj	_	_
26	snows	snow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
27	Lay	Lay	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	pierced	pierce	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl:relcl	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	arrows	arrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	dumb	dumb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	conj	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the twangs |  |  |  | of the hunters's bows; sharp *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hum** | gerund | swift *not said here* | the arrows |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent arrow=Topic |
| 3 | **speed** | past | swift |  |  |  | till ten huge bulls |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **snow** | present | the bloody | Lay |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **pierce** | participle |  | ten huge bulls *not said here* |  |  |  | with arrows | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with arrow=Instrument |

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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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