---
title: They could not help suspecting that the purple bird must be aware of… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They could not help suspecting that the purple bird must be aware of something mischievous that would befall them at the palace, and the knowledge of which affected its airy spirit with a human sympathy and sorrow. Who acts: cliffs, purple bird, something mischievous, knowledge. A sentence of «Tangl
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 1, sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They could not help suspecting that the purple bird must be aware of something mischievous that would befall them at the palace, and the knowledge of which affected its airy spirit with a human sympathy and sorrow.

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**Who acts:** cliffs, purple bird, something mischievous, knowledge · **What happens:** not help, suspect, be, befall, affect · **To what, where:** cliffs, palace, airy spirit

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (cliffs, purple bird, something mischievous, knowledge), 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:pg976:15:90
# text = They could not help suspecting that the purple bird must be aware of something mischievous that would befall them at the palace, and the knowledge of which affected its airy spirit with a human sympathy and sorrow.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	suspecting	suspect	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	csubj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	purple	purple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
12	aware	aware	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	ccomp	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	15	compound	_	_
15	mischievous	mischievou	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	befall	befall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nmod	_	_
29	affected	affect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
30	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	airy	airy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	sympathy	sympathy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **help** | could | cliffs *= cliff* |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **suspect** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | must | the purple bird |  |  |  |  | of something mischievous; aware *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **befall** | would | something mischievous | cliffs *= cliff* |  | the palace |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **affect** | past | the knowledge | knowledge's airy spirit |  |  |  | with a human sympathy and sorrow | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus spirit=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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