---
title: Indeed, his motion was as light as if he were flying through the air… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Indeed, his motion was as light as if he were flying through the air, and his hoofs seemed hardly to leave their print in the grassy soil over which he trod. Who acts: motion, bull, hoofs. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Indeed, his motion was as light as if he were flying through the air, and his hoofs seemed hardly to leave their print in the grassy soil over which he trod.

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**Who acts:** motion, bull, hoofs · **What happens:** be, fly, seem, leave, tread, motion · **To what, where:** air, print, grassy soil

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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 (motion, bull, hoofs), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg976:10:30
# text = Indeed, his motion was as light as if he were flying through the air, and his hoofs seemed hardly to leave their print in the grassy soil over which he trod.
1	Indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	motion	motion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	through	through	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	hoofs	hoof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
21	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	print	print	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	grassy	grassy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	soil	soil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
30	over	over	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	obl	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	trod	tread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | bull's motion |  |  |  |  | indeed, light *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fly** | past · progressive | bull |  |  | the air |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent through air=Location |
| 3 | **seem** | past | bull's hoofs |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **leave** | to-infinitive | bull's hoofs *not said here* | hoofs's print |  | the grassy soil |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent print=Theme in soil=Location |
| 5 | **tread** | past | bull |  |  | the grassy soil |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over which=Trajectory |
| 6 | **motion** |  | bull |  |  |  |  |  | nom motion «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 7 | **print** |  | hoofs *= hoof* |  |  |  |  |  | nom print «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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