---
title: Twas the hoot of the owl that the hunters heard, And the scattering… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: Twas the hoot of the owl that the hunters heard, And the scattering drops of the threat'ning shower, And the far wolf's cry to the moon preferred. Who acts: hunters, scattering drops, owl. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 2, with its 
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 2, sentence 8

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Twas the hoot of the owl that the hunters heard, And the scattering drops of the threat'ning shower, And the far wolf's cry to the moon preferred.

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**Who acts:** hunters, scattering drops, owl · **What happens:** hear, cry, prefer, hoot · **To what, where:** owl, moon, Twas

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hunters, scattering drops, owl), 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:pg8122:9:8
# text = Twas the hoot of the owl that the hunters heard, And the scattering drops of the threat'ning shower, And the far wolf's cry to the moon preferred.
1	Twas	twa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	hoot	hoot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	hunters	hunter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
12	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	scattering	scattering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	drops	drop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	threat'ning	threat'ning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	shower	shower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
30	preferred	prefer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the hunters | the owl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer owl=Stimulus |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* |  | the scattering drops of the threat'ning shower |  |  |  |  | to the moon; the far wolf *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 3 | **prefer** | participle |  | the moon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **hoot** |  | the owl |  |  |  |  |  | nom hoot «communication intransitive»: of=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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