---
title: No sooner had they clambered up the cliff, than they discerned the t… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: No sooner had they clambered up the cliff, than they discerned the tall marble towers of the palace, ascending, as white as snow, out of the lovely green shadow of the trees which surrounded it. Who acts: friends. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 1, with
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No sooner had they clambered up the cliff, than they discerned the tall marble towers of the palace, ascending, as white as snow, out of the lovely green shadow of the trees which surrounded it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** friends · **What happens:** clamber up, discern, ascend, surround, shadow · **To what, where:** cliff, tall marble towers, lovely green shadow, trees

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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 (friends), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg976:15:70
# text = No sooner had they clambered up the cliff, than they discerned the tall marble towers of the palace, ascending, as white as snow, out of the lovely green shadow of the trees which surrounded it.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	clambered	clamber	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	discerned	discern	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	marble	marble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	towers	tower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	ascending	ascend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	_
37	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
38	surrounded	surround	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	36	acl	_	_
39	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clamber up** | past | friends *= friend* | the cliff |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location cliff=Theme |
| 2 | **discern** | past | friends *= friend* | the tall marble towers of the palace |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer tower=Stimulus |
| 3 | **ascend** | gerund | friends *= friend* *not said here* |  |  | the lovely green shadow of the trees |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme out shadow=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **surround** | participle · passive |  | the trees |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **shadow** |  |  | the trees |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: 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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