---
title: He had waited but a few moments, when he began to see a sight, which… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He had waited but a few moments, when he began to see a sight, which was as great a marvel as the most marvelous thing I ever told you about. Who acts: Cadmus, sight, I. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4, sentence 31

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He had waited but a few moments, when he began to see a sight, which was as great a marvel as the most marvelous thing I ever told you about.

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**Who acts:** Cadmus, sight, I · **What happens:** wait, begin, see, be, tell · **To what, where:** sight, marvelous thing, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, sight, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg976:13:31
# text = He had waited but a few moments, when he began to see a sight, which was as great a marvel as the most marvelous thing I ever told you about.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	waited	wait	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	moments	moment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	acl:relcl	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	marvel	marvel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	26	advmod	_	_
26	marvelous	marvelous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	30	advmod	_	_
30	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	iobj	_	_
32	about	about	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wait** | past · perfect | Cadmus |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | Cadmus |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive | Cadmus *not said here* | a sight |  |  |  | as the marvelous thing | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer sight=Stimulus as thing=Attribute |
| 4 | **is** | past | a sight |  |  |  |  | a marvel *obl:unmarked*; great *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | I | the marvelous thing *not said here* | you |  | ever | about *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

<!-- .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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