---
title: Why, he set off, as swift as the wind, straight down to the seashore… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Why, he set off, as swift as the wind, straight down to the seashore, scampered across the sand, took an airy leap, and plunged right in among the foaming billows. Who acts: bull. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1, sentence 60

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Why, he set off, as swift as the wind, straight down to the seashore, scampered across the sand, took an airy leap, and plunged right in among the foaming billows.

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**Who acts:** bull · **What happens:** set off, scamper, take, plunge · **To what, where:** seashore, sand, airy leap

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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 (bull), 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:pg976:10:60
# text = Why, he set off, as swift as the wind, straight down to the seashore, scampered across the sand, took an airy leap, and plunged right in among the foaming billows.
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	swift	swift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	down	down	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	seashore	seashore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	scampered	scamper	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl	_	_
20	across	across	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
24	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	airy	airy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	leap	leap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	plunged	plunge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	conj	_	_
31	right	right	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
33	among	among	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	foaming	foaming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	billows	billow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set off** | past | bull |  |  |  |  | as swift; as the wind and the seashore | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **scamper** | participle |  | the seashore *not said here* |  | the sand |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across sand=Trajectory |
| 3 | **take** | past |  | a airy leap |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leap=Theme |
| 4 | **plunge** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | in the foaming billows | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in billow=Attribute |

<!-- .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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