---
title: The five soldiers grumbled a little, and muttered that it was their… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The five soldiers grumbled a little, and muttered that it was their business to overthrow cities, not to build them up. Who acts: five soldiers, city. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4, sentence 71

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The five soldiers grumbled a little, and muttered that it was their business to overthrow cities, not to build them up.

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**Who acts:** five soldiers, city · **What happens:** grumble, mutter, be, overthrow, not build up · **To what, where:** little, business, cities, fellows

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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 (five soldiers, city), 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:pg976:13:71
# text = The five soldiers grumbled a little, and muttered that it was their business to overthrow cities, not to build them up.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	grumbled	grumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	muttered	mutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	overthrow	overthrow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
17	cities	city	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grumble** *speech: other* | past | the five soldiers | a little |  |  |  |  | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **mutter** *speech: assert* | past | the five soldiers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | city | fellows's business |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **overthrow** | to-infinitive | the five soldiers *not said here* | cities |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **build up** | to-infinitive | the five soldiers *not said here* | fellows *= fellow* |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer they=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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