---
title: Before many years went by, there was a group of rosy little children… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Before many years went by, there was a group of rosy little children (but how they came thither has always been a mystery to me) sporting in the great hall, and on the marble steps of the palace, and running joyfully to meet King Cadmus when affairs of state left him at leisure to play with them. Wh
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 5, sentence 6

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Before many years went by, there was a group of rosy little children (but how they came thither has always been a mystery to me) sporting in the great hall, and on the marble steps of the palace, and running joyfully to meet King Cadmus when affairs of state left him at leisure to play with them.

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**Who acts:** many years, group, children, mystery, affairs · **What happens:** go by, be, come, sport, run, meet · **To what, where:** mystery, me, great hall, King, leisure, palace

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (many years, group, children, mystery), 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:pg976:14:6
# text = Before many years went by, there was a group of rosy little children (but how they came thither has always been a mystery to me) sporting in the great hall, and on the marble steps of the palace, and running joyfully to meet King Cadmus when affairs of state left him at leisure to play with them.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	group	group	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	rosy	rosy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
15	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
17	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
20	thither	thither	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
22	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	25	advmod	_	_
23	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	cop	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	mystery	mystery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	25	punct	_	_
29	sporting	sport	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	marble	marble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	_
39	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
46	joyfully	joyfully	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	xcomp	_	_
49	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	48	obj	_	_
50	Cadmus	Cadmus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	49	flat	_	_
51	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	55	mark	_	_
52	affairs	affair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	nsubj	_	_
53	of	of	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nmod	_	_
55	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	advcl	_	_
56	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	obj	_	_
57	at	at	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	leisure	leisure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obl	_	_
59	to	to	PART	TO	_	60	mark	_	_
60	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	advcl	_	_
61	with	with	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
62	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go by** | past | many years |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | past | a group of rosy little children |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | past | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | thither *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | present · perfect |  | a mystery and the marble steps of the palace | me |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **sport** | gerund | a mystery and the marble steps of the palace *not said here* |  |  | the great hall |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **run** | gerund | a group of rosy little children *not said here* |  |  |  |  | joyfully *property* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **meet** | to-infinitive | a group of rosy little children *not said here* | King |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Co-Agent |
| 8 | **leave** | past | affairs of state | King |  | leisure |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme at leisure=Location |
| 9 | **play** | to-infinitive | affairs of state *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with affairs *= affair* | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with they=Theme |
| 10 | **step** |  |  | the palace |  |  |  |  | nom step «act 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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