---
title: The water of this fountain, as it spouted upward, was constantly tak… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The water of this fountain, as it spouted upward, was constantly taking new shapes, not very distinctly, but plainly enough for a nimble fancy to recognize what they were. Who acts: water, fountains. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 2, with its dependenc
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 2, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The water of this fountain, as it spouted upward, was constantly taking new shapes, not very distinctly, but plainly enough for a nimble fancy to recognize what they were.

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**Who acts:** water, fountains · **What happens:** spout, be, recognize · **To what, where:** fountain, nimble fancy

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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 (water, fountains), 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:pg976:16:41
# text = The water of this fountain, as it spouted upward, was constantly taking new shapes, not very distinctly, but plainly enough for a nimble fancy to recognize what they were.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	fountain	fountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	spouted	spout	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	upward	upward	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	constantly	constantly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
15	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	shapes	shape	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	distinctly	distinctly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	plainly	plainly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
24	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	nimble	nimble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	fancy	fancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	ccomp	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	recognize	recognize	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl	_	_
31	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	obj	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
33	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spout** | past | water | this fountain *not said here* |  |  |  | upward *property* | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location fountain=Source |
| 2 | **is** | past | the water of this fountain |  |  |  |  | constantly, distinctly, take *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **recognize** | to-infinitive | the water of this fountain *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | past | fountains *= fountain* | a nimble fancy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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