---
title: Even the servants, as they knelt down to present the dishes, might b… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Even the servants, as they knelt down to present the dishes, might be seen to grin and sneer, while the guests were helping themselves to the offered dainties. Who acts: servants, guests. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 3, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 3, sentence 14

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Even the servants, as they knelt down to present the dishes, might be seen to grin and sneer, while the guests were helping themselves to the offered dainties.

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**Who acts:** servants, guests · **What happens:** kneel down, present, see, grin, sneer, help · **To what, where:** dishes, servants

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servants, guests), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg976:1234`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg976:17:14
# text = Even the servants, as they knelt down to present the dishes, might be seen to grin and sneer, while the guests were helping themselves to the offered dainties.
1	Even	even	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	knelt	kneel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
8	down	down	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	present	present	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
14	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	grin	grin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	sneer	sneer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	helping	help	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
27	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	offered	offer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	amod	_	_
31	dainties	dainty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kneel down** | past | servants *= servant* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **present** | to-infinitive | servants *= servant* *not said here* | the dishes |  |  |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dish=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | might · passive |  | the servants |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **grin** | to-infinitive | the servants *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **sneer** | infinitive | the servants *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **help** | past · progressive | the guests | servants *= servant* |  |  |  | to the offered dainties | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Beneficiary |
| 7 | **offer** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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