---
title: Whatever little fault they might find with the dishes, they sat at d… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Whatever little fault they might find with the dishes, they sat at dinner a prodigiously long while; and it would really have made you ashamed to see how they swilled down the liquor and gobbled up the food. Who acts: little fault, sorts, fault. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorn
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 3, sentence 23

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Whatever little fault they might find with the dishes, they sat at dinner a prodigiously long while; and it would really have made you ashamed to see how they swilled down the liquor and gobbled up the food.

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**Who acts:** little fault, sorts, fault · **What happens:** find, sit, make, see, swill down, gobble up · **To what, where:** dinner, fault, liquor, food · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (little fault, sorts, fault), 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:pg976:17:23
# text = Whatever little fault they might find with the dishes, they sat at dinner a prodigiously long while; and it would really have made you ashamed to see how they swilled down the liquor and gobbled up the food.
1	Whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	det:predet	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	fault	fault	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	prodigiously	prodigiously	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	_
18	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	really	really	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux	_	_
25	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	ccomp	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	ashamed	ashamed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	swilled	swill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	ccomp	_	_
33	down	down	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	liquor	liquor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	gobbled	gobble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	conj	_	_
38	up	up	ADP	RP	_	37	compound:prt	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | might | whatever little fault |  |  |  |  | with the dishes | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | past | sorts *= sort* |  |  | dinner |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at dinner=Location |
| 3 | **make** | would · perfect · passive |  | fault |  |  |  | ashamed *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | fault *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **swill down** | past | sorts *= sort* | the liquor |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent liquor=Patient |
| 6 | **gobble up** | past | sorts *= sort* *not said here* | the food |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent food=Theme |

<!-- .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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