---
title: But every little while, as it pecked at the bark of the tree, the pu… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But every little while, as it pecked at the bark of the tree, the purple bird bethought itself of some secret sorrow, and repeated its plaintive note of "Peep, peep, pe--weep!" Who acts: present, little while. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 1, with its
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 37

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But every little while, as it pecked at the bark of the tree, the purple bird bethought itself of some secret sorrow, and repeated its plaintive note of "Peep, peep, pe--weep!"

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**Who acts:** present, little while · **What happens:** peck, bethink, repeat, note · **To what, where:** little while, bark, present, plaintive note, Peep

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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 (present, little while), 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:pg976:15:37
# text = But every little while, as it pecked at the bark of the tree, the purple bird bethought itself of some secret sorrow, and repeated its plaintive note of "Peep, peep, pe--weep!"
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
2	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	pecked	peck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	purple	purple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
19	bethought	bethink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
23	secret	secret	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
28	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	plaintive	plaintive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	note	note	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	Peep	peep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	peep	peep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	pe	pe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	weep	weep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **peck** | past | present | every little while *not said here* |  | the bark of the tree and the purple bird |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent while=Patient at bark=Location |
| 2 | **bethink** | past | every little while | present |  |  |  | of some secret sorrow | tree rules |
| 3 | **repeat** | past | every little while *not said here* | present's plaintive note of Peep and peep and pe and weep |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent note=Eventuality |
| 4 | **note** |  | present | Peep |  |  |  |  | nom note «communication 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.

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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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