---
title: But scarcely had they made half a dozen steps from the edge of the c… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But scarcely had they made half a dozen steps from the edge of the cliff, when a bird came fluttering to meet them. Who acts: inhabitants, bird. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But scarcely had they made half a dozen steps from the edge of the cliff, when a bird came fluttering to meet them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** inhabitants, bird · **What happens:** make, come, flutter, meet · **To what, where:** dozen steps, edge, steps

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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 (inhabitants, bird), 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:pg976:15:80
# text = But scarcely had they made half a dozen steps from the edge of the cliff, when a bird came fluttering to meet them.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	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	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	9	det:predet	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	dozen	dozen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	20	mark	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
21	fluttering	flutter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	xcomp	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | inhabitants *= inhabitant* | half dozen steps |  | the edge of the cliff |  | scarcely *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V PP»: agent=Asset step=Product from edge=Material |
| 2 | **come** | past | a bird |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **flutter** | gerund | a bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **meet** | to-infinitive | a bird *not said here* | steps *= step* |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [sentence 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/15/79/)
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