---
title: He wanted to come up with the cow, so as to examine her, and see if… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He wanted to come up with the cow, so as to examine her, and see if she would appear to know him, or whether there were any peculiarities to distinguish her from a thousand other cows, whose only business is to fill the milk-pail, and sometimes kick it over. Who acts: Brindle, cow, peculiarities, bu
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 3, sentence 61

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He wanted to come up with the cow, so as to examine her, and see if she would appear to know him, or whether there were any peculiarities to distinguish her from a thousand other cows, whose only business is to fill the milk-pail, and sometimes kick it over.

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**Who acts:** Brindle, cow, peculiarities, business · **What happens:** want, come up, examine, see, appear, know · **To what, where:** cow, Brindle, thousand other cows, pail

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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 (Brindle, cow, peculiarities, business), 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:pg976:12:61
# text = He wanted to come up with the cow, so as to examine her, and see if she would appear to know him, or whether there were any peculiarities to distinguish her from a thousand other cows, whose only business is to fill the milk-pail, and sometimes kick it over.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	examine	examine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
14	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	appear	appear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
26	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
27	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	29	expl	_	_
29	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	parataxis	_	_
30	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	det	_	_
31	peculiarities	peculiarity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
34	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	from	from	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	nummod	_	_
38	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
41	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	43	nmod:poss	_	_
42	only	only	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj	_	_
44	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	fill	fill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	acl:relcl	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
48	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	48	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	pail	pail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
53	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	54	advmod	_	_
54	kick	kick	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
55	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	obj	_	_
56	over	over	ADP	RP	_	54	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | Brindle |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **come up** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Brindle *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the cow | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **examine** | to-infinitive | Brindle *not said here* | cow |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | infinitive | Brindle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **appear** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | cow |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 6 | **know** | to-infinitive | cow *not said here* | Brindle |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 7 | **be** | past | any peculiarities |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **distinguish** | to-infinitive | Brindle *not said here* | cow |  |  |  | from thousand other cows | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent she=Theme from cow=Co-Theme |
| 9 | **is** | present | business | thousand other cows *not said here* |  |  |  | fill *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **kick over** | infinitive |  | pail |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

<!-- .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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