---
title: Soon he perceived them to be the steel heads of spears, sprouting up… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Soon he perceived them to be the steel heads of spears, sprouting up everywhere like so many stalks of grain, and continually growing taller and taller. Who acts: Cadmus. 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 34

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Soon he perceived them to be the steel heads of spears, sprouting up everywhere like so many stalks of grain, and continually growing taller and taller.

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**Who acts:** Cadmus · **What happens:** perceive, be, sprout up, grow · **To what, where:** pieces, steel heads

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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:pg976:13:34
# text = Soon he perceived them to be the steel heads of spears, sprouting up everywhere like so many stalks of grain, and continually growing taller and taller.
1	Soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	perceived	perceive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	steel	steel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	advcl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	sprouting	sprout	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
16	like	like	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	stalks	stalk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	continually	continually	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
26	taller	tall	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	xcomp	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	taller	tall	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **perceive** | past | Cadmus | pieces *= piece* |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive | Cadmus *not said here* | the steel heads |  |  |  | of spears | tree rules |
| 3 | **sprout up** | gerund | Cadmus *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like many stalks of grain; everywhere *property* | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |
| 4 | **grow** | gerund | Cadmus *not said here* |  |  |  |  | continually, tall *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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