---
title: They could not possibly help following her, though all the time they… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They could not possibly help following her, though all the time they fancied themselves doing it of their own accord. Who acts: miles. 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 90

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They could not possibly help following her, though all the time they fancied themselves doing it of their own accord.

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**Who acts:** miles · **What happens:** not help, follow, fancy, do · **To what, where:** cow, miles, much

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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 (miles), 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:pg976:12:90
# text = They could not possibly help following her, though all the time they fancied themselves doing it of their own accord.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|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	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	obj	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	12	det:predet	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	fancied	fancy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obj	_	_
16	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	accord	accord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **help** | could | miles *= mile* |  |  |  |  | possibly *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **follow** | gerund |  | cow |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 3 | **fancy** | past | miles *= mile* | miles *= mile* |  |  | time |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer themselves=Stimulus |
| 4 | **do** | gerund | miles *= mile* *not said here* | much |  |  |  | of miles's own accord | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

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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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