---
title: Tis a custom of old and a sacred thing; Nor rank nor beauty the warr… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: Tis a custom of old and a sacred thing; Nor rank nor beauty the warriors spare, If a tarnished maiden should enter there. Who acts: you, warriors, tarnished maiden. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 1, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 1, sentence 12

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Tis a custom of old and a sacred thing; Nor rank nor beauty the warriors spare, If a tarnished maiden should enter there.

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**Who acts:** you, warriors, tarnished maiden · **What happens:** tis, spare, tarnish, enter · **To what, where:** custom, Nor rank

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, warriors, tarnished maiden), 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:pg8122:8:12
# text = Tis a custom of old and a sacred thing; Nor rank nor beauty the warriors spare, If a tarnished maiden should enter there.
1	Tis	tis	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	nmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	sacred	sacred	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	Nor	nor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	rank	rank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	parataxis	_	_
13	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	14	cc	_	_
14	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	warriors	warrior	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	spare	spare	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	tarnished	tarnish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	amod	_	_
22	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	conj	_	_
25	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tis** | imperative | you *not said here* | a custom of old and a sacred thing |  |  |  | Nor rank nor beauty *parataxis* | tree rules |
| 2 | **spare** | present | the warriors | Nor rank nor beauty *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent rank=Asset |
| 3 | **tarnish** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **enter** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | a tarnished maiden |  |  | there |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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