---
title: The five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth grew very fond of these… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth grew very fond of these small urchins, and were never weary of showing them how to shoulder sticks, flourish wooden swords, and march in military order, blowing a penny trumpet, or beating an abominable rub-a-dub upon a little drum. Who acts: five old sold
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 5, sentence 8

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The five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth grew very fond of these small urchins, and were never weary of showing them how to shoulder sticks, flourish wooden swords, and march in military order, blowing a penny trumpet, or beating an abominable rub-a-dub upon a little drum.

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**Who acts:** five old soldiers, shoulder sticks, rub · **What happens:** grow, not be, show, flourish, blow, beat · **To what, where:** march, soldiers, wooden swords, penny trumpet, little drum

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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 (five old soldiers, shoulder sticks, rub), 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:pg976:14:8
# text = The five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth grew very fond of these small urchins, and were never weary of showing them how to shoulder sticks, flourish wooden swords, and march in military order, blowing a penny trumpet, or beating an abominable rub-a-dub upon a little drum.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
10	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
15	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	urchins	urchin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	weary	weary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
22	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	showing	show	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	xcomp	_	_
27	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	flourish	flourish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	_
31	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	swords	sword	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	march	march	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	military	military	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
40	blowing	blow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	compound	_	_
43	trumpet	trumpet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
45	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	beating	beat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	40	conj	_	_
47	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
48	abominable	abominable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
49	rub	rub	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	51	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	dub	dub	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
54	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
55	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
56	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
57	drum	drum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | the five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth | march in military order |  |  |  | fond *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | the five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth *not said here* |  |  |  |  | weary *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **show** | gerund | the five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth *not said here* | soldiers *= soldier* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 4 | **flourish** | present | shoulder sticks *not said here* | wooden swords |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **blow** | gerund | the five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth *not said here* | a penny trumpet |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent trumpet=Patient |
| 6 | **beat** | gerund | the five old soldiers of the dragon's teeth *not said here* |  |  | a little drum |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon drum=Location |
| 7 | **dub** |  | rub |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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