---
title: If payment was offered, they shook their heads, and only asked for t… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: If payment was offered, they shook their heads, and only asked for tidings of Europa. Who acts: threads. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1, sentence 111

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If payment was offered, they shook their heads, and only asked for tidings of Europa.

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**Who acts:** threads · **What happens:** offer, shake, ask · **To what, where:** payment, heads

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., 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 (threads), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg976:10:111
# text = If payment was offered, they shook their heads, and only asked for tidings of Europa.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	payment	payment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	offered	offer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	tidings	tiding	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Europa	Europa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **offer** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | payment |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **shake** | past | threads *= thread* | threads's heads |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | threads *= thread* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for tidings of Europa | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=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:** «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Project Gutenberg book 976 (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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