---
title: While they were talking of these schemes, and beguiling the tediousn… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: While they were talking of these schemes, and beguiling the tediousness of the way with laying out the plan of the new city, one of the company happened to look at the cow. Who acts: strangers, way, company. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 3, with i
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 3, sentence 96

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While they were talking of these schemes, and beguiling the tediousness of the way with laying out the plan of the new city, one of the company happened to look at the cow.

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**Who acts:** strangers, way, company · **What happens:** talk, beguile, lay out, happen, look, plan · **To what, where:** tediousness, plan, new city

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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 (strangers, way, company), 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:pg976:12:96
# text = While they were talking of these schemes, and beguiling the tediousness of the way with laying out the plan of the new city, one of the company happened to look at the cow.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	schemes	scheme	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	beguiling	beguile	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tediousness	tediousness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	laying	lay	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	obj	_	_
27	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · progressive | strangers *= stranger* |  |  |  |  | of this schemes | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **beguile** | gerund | strangers *= stranger* *not said here* | the tediousness of the way |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus tediousness=Experiencer one=Result |
| 3 | **lay out** | gerund | the way *not said here* | the plan of the new city |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plan=Result |
| 4 | **happen** | past | the company |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **look** | to-infinitive | the company *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the cow | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at cow=Theme |
| 6 | **plan** |  |  | the new city |  |  |  |  | nom plan «cognition transitive»: of=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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