---
title: The three boys were very happy, gathering flowers, and twining them… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The three boys were very happy, gathering flowers, and twining them into garlands, with which they adorned the little Europa. Who acts: three boys, boys. 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 3

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The three boys were very happy, gathering flowers, and twining them into garlands, with which they adorned the little Europa.

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**Who acts:** three boys, boys · **What happens:** be, gather, twine, adorn · **To what, where:** flowers, garlands, little Europa

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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 (three boys, boys), 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:pg976:10:3
# text = The three boys were very happy, gathering flowers, and twining them into garlands, with which they adorned the little Europa.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	gathering	gather	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
9	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	twining	twine	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	garlands	garland	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obl	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	adorned	adorn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	Europa	Europa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the three boys |  |  |  |  | happy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **gather** | gerund | the three boys *not said here* | flowers |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flower=Theme |
| 3 | **twine** | gerund | the three boys *not said here* | flowers *= flower* |  | garlands |  |  | vn coil-9.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme into garland=Destination |
| 4 | **adorn** | past | boys *= boy* |  | the little Europa |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent europa=Destination with which=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:** «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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