---
title: At length, one morning, when they were taking their staffs in hand t… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At length, one morning, when they were taking their staffs in hand to set out, he thus addressed them: Who acts: mother, Cilix. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 2, sentence 29

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At length, one morning, when they were taking their staffs in hand to set out, he thus addressed them:

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**Who acts:** mother, Cilix · **What happens:** take, set out, address · **To what, where:** staffs, hand, mother, length

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, Cilix), 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:pg976:11:29
# text = At length, one morning, when they were taking their staffs in hand to set out, he thus addressed them:
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	staffs	staff	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	addressed	address	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past · progressive | mother | mother's staffs |  | hand |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent staff=Value in hand=Location |
| 2 | **set out** | to-infinitive | mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **address** | past | Cilix | mother |  | length |  | thus *property* | vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Destination |

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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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