---
title: At a distance, towards the center of the island, he beheld the state… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At a distance, towards the center of the island, he beheld the stately towers of what seemed to be a palace, built of snow-white marble, and rising in the midst of a grove of lofty trees. Who acts: Ulysses. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 1, with its de
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 16

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At a distance, towards the center of the island, he beheld the stately towers of what seemed to be a palace, built of snow-white marble, and rising in the midst of a grove of lofty trees.

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**Who acts:** Ulysses · **What happens:** behold, seem, be, build, rise · **To what, where:** stately towers, palace, midst

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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 (Ulysses), 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:pg976:15:16
# text = At a distance, towards the center of the island, he beheld the stately towers of what seemed to be a palace, built of snow-white marble, and rising in the midst of a grove of lofty trees.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	center	center	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	beheld	behold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	stately	stately	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	towers	tower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nmod	_	_
19	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	marble	marble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	rising	rise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	grove	grove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	lofty	lofty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **behold** | past | Ulysses | the stately towers |  |  |  | at a distance and the center of the island | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tower=Stimulus |
| 2 | **seem** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a palace |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **build** | participle |  | a palace *not said here* |  |  |  | of white marble | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **rise** | gerund | Ulysses *not said here* |  |  | the midst of a grove of lofty trees |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in midst=Location |

<!-- .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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