---
title: They tried to groan and beg for mercy, but forthwith emitted the mos… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They tried to groan and beg for mercy, but forthwith emitted the most awful grunting and squealing that ever came out of swinish throats. Who acts: hogs. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 3, sentence 44

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They tried to groan and beg for mercy, but forthwith emitted the most awful grunting and squealing that ever came out of swinish throats.

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**Who acts:** hogs · **What happens:** try, groan, beg, emit, come out · **To what, where:** awful grunting, swinish throats

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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 (hogs), 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:pg976:17:44
# text = They tried to groan and beg for mercy, but forthwith emitted the most awful grunting and squealing that ever came out of swinish throats.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	groan	groan	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	beg	beg	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	forthwith	forthwith	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	emitted	emit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	15	advmod	_	_
15	awful	awful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	grunting	grunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	squealing	squealing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obl	_	_
20	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	21	advmod	_	_
21	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	swinish	swinish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	throats	throat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | hogs *= hog* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **groan** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | hogs *= hog* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | infinitive | hogs *= hog* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for mercy | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for mercy=Topic |
| 4 | **emit** | past | hogs *= hog* *not said here* | the awful grunting and squealing |  |  |  | forthwith *property* | vn substance\_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source grunting=Theme |
| 5 | **come out** | past |  | the awful grunting and squealing |  | swinish throats | ever |  | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient throat=Result |

<!-- .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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