---
title: It was a sight to bring tears into one's eyes (and I hope none of yo… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a sight to bring tears into one's eyes (and I hope none of you will be cruel enough to laugh at it), to see the poor creatures go snuffing along, picking up here a cabbage leaf and there a turnip top, and rooting their noses in the earth for whatever they could find. Who acts: door, I, none, 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 3, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was a sight to bring tears into one's eyes (and I hope none of you will be cruel enough to laugh at it), to see the poor creatures go snuffing along, picking up here a cabbage leaf and there a turnip top, and rooting their noses in the earth for whatever they could find.

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**Who acts:** door, I, none, poor creatures, turnip top, creatures · **What happens:** be, bring, hope, laugh, see, go · **To what, where:** sight, tears, eyes, door, cabbage leaf, noses · **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 (door, I, none, poor creatures), 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:pg976:17:51
# text = It was a sight to bring tears into one's eyes (and I hope none of you will be cruel enough to laugh at it), to see the poor creatures go snuffing along, picking up here a cabbage leaf and there a turnip top, and rooting their noses in the earth for whatever they could find.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	one	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
12	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	hope	hope	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
16	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	21	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	_
19	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	_
22	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
34	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	ccomp	_	_
35	snuffing	snuff	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	xcomp	_	_
36	along	along	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
38	picking	pick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	advcl	_	_
39	up	up	ADP	RP	_	38	compound:prt	_	_
40	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	38	advmod	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	cabbage	cabbage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	compound	_	_
43	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	34	expl	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	turnip	turnip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	compound	_	_
48	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	rooting	root	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	48	acl	_	_
52	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	53	nmod:poss	_	_
53	noses	nose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	51	obj	_	_
54	in	in	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	_
57	for	for	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	56	nmod	_	_
59	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	61	nsubj	_	_
60	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	61	aux	_	_
61	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	58	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | door | a sight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **bring** | to-infinitive |  | tears |  | one's eyes |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent tear=Theme into eye=Destination |
| 3 | **hope** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **is** | future | none |  |  |  |  | cruel, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **laugh** | to-infinitive | none *not said here* |  |  | door |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **see** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 7 | **go** | present | the poor creatures |  |  | there |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 8 | **snuff** | gerund | the poor creatures *not said here* |  |  |  |  | along *property* | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **pick up** | gerund | the poor creatures *not said here* | a cabbage leaf |  | here |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Topic |
| 10 | **root** | gerund | a turnip top *not said here* | creatures's noses |  | the earth for whatever |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent nose=Patient |
| 11 | **find** | could | creatures *= creature* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: 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:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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