---
title: It is a mere foolish waste of life, to spend it as we do, always wan… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It is a mere foolish waste of life, to spend it as we do, always wandering up and down, and never coming to any home at nightfall. Who acts: heap, we. 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 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It is a mere foolish waste of life, to spend it as we do, always wandering up and down, and never coming to any home at nightfall.

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**Who acts:** heap, we · **What happens:** be, spend, do, wonder up, not come · **To what, where:** mere foolish waste, heap, nightfall

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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 (heap, we), 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:pg976:11:8
# text = It is a mere foolish waste of life, to spend it as we do, always wandering up and down, and never coming to any home at nightfall.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	mere	mere	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	waste	waste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	spend	spend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	18	advmod	_	_
18	wandering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
19	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	down	down	ADV	RB	_	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	conj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
28	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	nightfall	nightfall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | heap | a mere foolish waste |  |  |  | of life | tree rules |
| 2 | **spend** | to-infinitive |  | heap |  |  |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Asset |
| 3 | **do** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **wonder up** *speech: ask* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **not** **come** | gerund |  |  |  | nightfall |  | to any home | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to home=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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