---
title: But the pretty child, if she slept at all, could not have slept more… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the pretty child, if she slept at all, could not have slept more than a moment, when she heard something trample on the grass, not far from her, and, peeping out from the heap of flowers, beheld a snow-white bull. Who acts: child, flowers. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne,
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 1, sentence 8

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But the pretty child, if she slept at all, could not have slept more than a moment, when she heard something trample on the grass, not far from her, and, peeping out from the heap of flowers, beheld a snow-white bull.

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**Who acts:** child, flowers · **What happens:** sleep, not sleep, hear, peep out, behold · **To what, where:** pretty child, all, something trample, grass, white bull

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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 (child, flowers), 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:pg976:10:8
# text = But the pretty child, if she slept at all, could not have slept more than a moment, when she heard something trample on the grass, not far from her, and, peeping out from the heap of flowers, beheld a snow-white bull.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux	_	_
15	slept	sleep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
16	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	advmod	_	_
17	than	than	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
24	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	25	compound	_	_
25	trample	trample	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	advmod	_	_
32	from	from	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	peeping	peep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	advcl	_	_
38	out	out	ADP	RP	_	37	compound:prt	_	_
39	from	from	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
45	beheld	behold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	43	acl	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
47	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	47	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sleep** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | child | the pretty child *not said here* |  | all |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **sleep** | could · perfect · passive |  | the pretty child |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **hear** | past | child | something trample |  | the grass |  | far *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer trample=Stimulus |
| 4 | **peep out** | gerund | child *not said here* |  |  |  |  | from the heap of flowers | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from heap=Theme |
| 5 | **behold** | participle | flowers *not said here* | a white bull |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bull=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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