---
title: But it fluttered nimbly out of his reach, still chirping in a piteou… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But it fluttered nimbly out of his reach, still chirping in a piteous tone, as if it could have told a lamentable story, had it only been gifted with human language. Who acts: face. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it fluttered nimbly out of his reach, still chirping in a piteous tone, as if it could have told a lamentable story, had it only been gifted with human language.

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**Who acts:** face · **What happens:** flutter, chirp, tell, have, gift · **To what, where:** reach, piteous tone, face · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (face), 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:pg976:15:26
# text = But it fluttered nimbly out of his reach, still chirping in a piteous tone, as if it could have told a lamentable story, had it only been gifted with human language.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	nimbly	nimbly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	out	out	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	reach	reach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	still	still	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	chirping	chirp	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	piteous	piteous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	tone	tone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
22	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	lamentable	lamentable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	only	only	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	gifted	gift	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	xcomp	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flutter** | past | face |  |  | bird's reach |  | nimbly *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out reach=Location |
| 2 | **chirp** | gerund | face *not said here* |  |  | a piteous tone | still |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could · perfect · passive |  | face |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient story=Topic |
| 4 | **have** | past | face *not said here* | face |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **gift** | participle · passive | face *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with human language | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)» |

<!-- .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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