---
title: Before Cadmus could reach the spot, this pitiless reptile had killed… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Before Cadmus could reach the spot, this pitiless reptile had killed his poor companions, and was busily devouring them, making but a mouthful of each man. Who acts: Cadmus. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4, sentence 10

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Before Cadmus could reach the spot, this pitiless reptile had killed his poor companions, and was busily devouring them, making but a mouthful of each man.

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**Who acts:** Cadmus · **What happens:** reach, kill, devour, make · **To what, where:** spot, pitiless reptile, companions

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cadmus), 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:pg976:13:10
# text = Before Cadmus could reach the spot, this pitiless reptile had killed his poor companions, and was busily devouring them, making but a mouthful of each man.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	Cadmus	Cadmus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
9	pitiless	pitiless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	reptile	reptile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	companions	companion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	busily	busily	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	devouring	devour	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	conj	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	mouthful	mouthful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
29	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | could | Cadmus | the spot |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent spot=Theme |
| 2 | **kill** | past · perfect · passive |  | this pitiless reptile |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer companion=Result |
| 3 | **devour** | past · progressive | Cadmus *not said here* | companions *= companion* |  |  |  | busily *property* | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 4 | **make** | gerund | Cadmus *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |

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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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