---
title: "Either way," murmured some of the hungriest of the crew; "it will b… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Either way," murmured some of the hungriest of the crew; "it will be better than starvation; particularly if one could be sure of being well fattened beforehand, and daintily cooked afterwards." Who acts: question, one. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Either way," murmured some of the hungriest of the crew; "it will be better than starvation; particularly if one could be sure of being well fattened beforehand, and daintily cooked afterwards."

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**Who acts:** question, one · **What happens:** murmur, be, fatten, cook · **To what, where:** way · **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 (question, one), 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:pg976:15:58
# text = "Either way," murmured some of the hungriest of the crew; "it will be better than starvation; particularly if one could be sure of being well fattened beforehand, and daintily cooked afterwards."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Either	either	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	3	det	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	_
6	murmured	murmur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	hungriest	hungry	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	advcl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	crew	crew	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
19	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	conj	_	_
20	than	than	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	starvation	starvation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	particularly	particularly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
24	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	one	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
28	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
29	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	aux:pass	_	_
31	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
32	fattened	fatten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	ccomp	_	_
33	beforehand	beforehand	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	daintily	daintily	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	cooked	cook	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	_
38	afterwards	afterwards	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	37	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **murmur** *speech: other* | past |  | either way |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | future | question |  |  |  |  | than starvation; good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | could | one |  |  |  |  | particularly, sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **fatten** *in a quote* | gerund · passive | one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | beforehand, well *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V» |
| 5 | **cook** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | afterwards, daintily *property* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

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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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