---
title: He could not seriously think that this was the cow, because she went… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He could not seriously think that this was the cow, because she went along so quietly, behaving just like any other cow. Who acts: thought, this, cow. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 3, sentence 55

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He could not seriously think that this was the cow, because she went along so quietly, behaving just like any other cow.

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**Who acts:** thought, this, cow · **What happens:** not think, be, go along, behave · **To what, where:** cow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thought, this, cow), 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:pg976:12:55
# text = He could not seriously think that this was the cow, because she went along so quietly, behaving just like any other cow.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	seriously	seriously	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	along	along	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	behaving	behave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
20	just	just	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
23	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | could | thought |  |  |  |  | seriously *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | this | the cow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go along** | past | cow |  |  |  |  | along, quietly *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **behave** | gerund | cow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like any other cow | vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent like cow=Attribute |

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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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