---
title: Staggering he clutched the air and fell; His life-blood smoked on th… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: Staggering he clutched the air and fell; His life-blood smoked on the trampled sand, And dripped from the knife in the virgin's hand. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 1, sentence 32

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Staggering he clutched the air and fell; His life-blood smoked on the trampled sand, And dripped from the knife in the virgin's hand.

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**What happens:** stagger, clutch, fall, smoke, trample, drip · **To what, where:** air, life blood, trampled sand, knife

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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: 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:pg8122:8:32
# text = Staggering he clutched the air and fell; His life-blood smoked on the trampled sand, And dripped from the knife in the virgin's hand.
1	Staggering	stagger	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	nsubj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	clutched	clutch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
10	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
13	smoked	smoke	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	trampled	trample	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	dripped	drip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	virgin	virgin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	's	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stagger** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **clutch** | past |  | the air |  |  |  | meteor's life blood *obl*; meteor *nsubj* | vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent air=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **smoke** | participle |  | meteor's life blood *not said here* |  | the trampled sand |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **trample** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **drip** | past |  |  |  | the knife |  | in the virgin's hand | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP.theme V PP.source»: agent=Theme from knife=Source |

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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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