---
title: Their stock of provisions was quite exhausted, and even the shellfis… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Their stock of provisions was quite exhausted, and even the shellfish began to get scarce, so that they had now to choose between starving to death or venturing into the interior of the island, where perhaps some huge three-headed dragon, or other horrible monster, had his den. Who acts: shellfish, 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/15/12/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Tanglewood Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/) / [Circe's Palace., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/15/) / 12

# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Their stock of provisions was quite exhausted, and even the shellfish began to get scarce, so that they had now to choose between starving to death or venturing into the interior of the island, where perhaps some huge three-headed dragon, or other horrible monster, had his den.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** shellfish, some, voyagers · **What happens:** exhaust, begin, get, have, choose, starve · **To what, where:** stock, other horrible monster, interior, den, provisions

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shellfish, some, voyagers), 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:pg976:15:12
# text = Their stock of provisions was quite exhausted, and even the shellfish began to get scarce, so that they had now to choose between starving to death or venturing into the interior of the island, where perhaps some huge three-headed dragon, or other horrible monster, had his den.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	stock	stock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	provisions	provision	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
6	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	exhausted	exhaust	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	even	even	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	shellfish	shellfish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	scarce	scarce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	21	mark	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	fixed	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
22	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
25	between	between	ADP	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	venturing	venture	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	conj	_	_
31	into	into	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	interior	interior	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
38	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	39	advmod	_	_
39	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
40	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	45	nsubj	_	_
41	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
42	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	44	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	42	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	headed	headed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
47	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
48	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
49	horrible	horrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	monster	monster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
52	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
53	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	54	nmod:poss	_	_
54	den	den	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **exhaust** | past · passive |  | voyagers's stock of provisions |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the shellfish |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **get** | to-infinitive | the shellfish *not said here* |  |  |  |  | scarce *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **have** | past | shellfish |  |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **choose** | to-infinitive | shellfish *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **starve** | gerund | shellfish *not said here* | other horrible monster |  |  |  | to death | tree rules |
| 7 | **venture** | gerund | shellfish *not said here* |  |  | the interior of the island and huge headed dragon |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **dragon** |  | some |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **have** | past | shellfish *not said here* | dragon's den |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent den=Patient |
| 10 | **stock** |  | voyagers *= voyager* | provisions |  |  |  |  | nom stock «possession transitive»: poss=agent 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/15/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/15/13/)
- ↑ back to [Circe's Palace., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/15/)