---
title: This misfortune was entirely owing to the foolish curiosity of his s… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: This misfortune was entirely owing to the foolish curiosity of his shipmates, who, while Ulysses lay asleep, had untied some very bulky leathern bags, in which they supposed a valuable treasure to be concealed. Who acts: misfortune, shipmates, bags. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawt
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 4

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This misfortune was entirely owing to the foolish curiosity of his shipmates, who, while Ulysses lay asleep, had untied some very bulky leathern bags, in which they supposed a valuable treasure to be concealed.

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**Who acts:** misfortune, shipmates, bags · **What happens:** owe, lie, untie, suppose, conceal · **To what, where:** foolish curiosity, bulky leathern bags, valuable treasure

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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 (misfortune, shipmates, bags), 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:pg976:15:4
# text = This misfortune was entirely owing to the foolish curiosity of his shipmates, who, while Ulysses lay asleep, had untied some very bulky leathern bags, in which they supposed a valuable treasure to be concealed.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	entirely	entirely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	owing	owe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	curiosity	curiosity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	shipmates	shipmate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	Ulysses	Ulysses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
19	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	untied	untie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	parataxis	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	det	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	bulky	bulky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	leathern	leathern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	bags	bag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	obl	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	supposed	suppose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	valuable	valuable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
37	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	aux:pass	_	_
38	concealed	conceal	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **owe** | past · progressive | this misfortune |  |  |  |  | to the foolish curiosity of misfortune's shipmates *goal*; entirely *property* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to curiosity=Goal |
| 2 | **lie** | past | misfortune's shipmates |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **untie** | past · perfect |  | some bulky leathern bags |  |  |  |  | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bag=Patient |
| 4 | **suppose** | past | bags *= bag* | a valuable treasure |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent treasure=Attribute |
| 5 | **conceal** | to-infinitive · passive | bags *= bag* *not said here* | a valuable treasure *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn concealment-16 «NP V NP» |

<!-- .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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