---
title: A moment afterwards, a bird came flying towards him, and hovered in… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A moment afterwards, a bird came flying towards him, and hovered in the air, so as almost to brush his face with its wings. Who acts: moment. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 23

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A moment afterwards, a bird came flying towards him, and hovered in the air, so as almost to brush his face with its wings.

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**Who acts:** moment · **What happens:** come, fly, hover, brush · **To what, where:** air, face

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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 (moment), 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:pg976:15:23
# text = A moment afterwards, a bird came flying towards him, and hovered in the air, so as almost to brush his face with its wings.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	afterwards	afterwards	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	xcomp	_	_
9	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	hovered	hover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	brush	brush	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | a moment |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund | a moment *not said here* |  |  |  |  | towards bird | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards he=Destination |
| 3 | **hover** | past | a moment *not said here* |  |  | the air |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in air=Location |
| 4 | **brush** | to-infinitive | a moment *not said here* | bird's face |  |  |  | with face's wings; almost *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent face=Destination with wing=Theme |

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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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