---
title: To their surprise and joy, however, these wild beasts merely capered… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: To their surprise and joy, however, these wild beasts merely capered around them, wagging their tails, offering their heads to be stroked and patted, and behaving just like so many well-bred house dogs, when they wish to express their delight at meeting their master, or their master's friends. Who a
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 2, sentence 34

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To their surprise and joy, however, these wild beasts merely capered around them, wagging their tails, offering their heads to be stroked and patted, and behaving just like so many well-bred house dogs, when they wish to express their delight at meeting their master, or their master's friends.

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**Who acts:** beasts, clouds · **What happens:** caper, wag, offer, stroke, pat, behave · **To what, where:** wild beasts, tails, heads, bred house dogs, delight, master

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beasts, clouds), 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:pg976:16:34
# text = To their surprise and joy, however, these wild beasts merely capered around them, wagging their tails, offering their heads to be stroked and patted, and behaving just like so many well-bred house dogs, when they wish to express their delight at meeting their master, or their master's friends.
1	To	to	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	however	however	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
10	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	capered	caper	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
14	around	around	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	wagging	wag	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	offering	offer	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	conj	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	stroked	stroke	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	advcl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	patted	pat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	behaving	behave	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	conj	_	_
32	just	just	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
33	like	like	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
34	so	so	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	nsubj	_	_
36	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	bred	breed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	40	amod	_	_
39	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	_
40	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
42	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	44	advmod	_	_
43	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	40	conj	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	express	express	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	xcomp	_	_
47	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	delight	delight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
49	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
50	meeting	meet	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	46	advcl	_	_
51	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
54	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
55	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nmod:poss	_	_
56	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	's	's	PART	POS	_	56	case	_	_
58	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **caper** | participle · passive |  | this wild beasts |  |  |  | to clouds's surprise and joy; around clouds *= cloud*; however, merely *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **wag** | gerund |  | clouds's tails |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |
| 3 | **offer** | gerund |  | clouds's heads |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 4 | **stroke** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP» |
| 5 | **pat** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **behave** | gerund |  | bred house dogs |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **breed** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **wish** | present | beasts *= beast* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 9 | **express** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | beasts *= beast* *not said here* | clouds's delight |  |  |  | clouds's master's friends *obl* | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent delight=Theme |
| 10 | **meet** | gerund | beasts *= beast* *not said here* | clouds's master |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent master=Co-Agent |
| 11 | **surprise** |  | clouds *= cloud* |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |
| 12 | **delight** |  | clouds *= cloud* |  |  |  |  |  | nom delight «feeling intransitive»: poss=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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