---
title: If they had any human reason left, it was just enough to keep them w… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: If they had any human reason left, it was just enough to keep them wondering when they should be slaughtered, and what quality of bacon they should make. Who acts: creatures, reason, quality. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 3, with its dependency tree a
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 3, sentence 53

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If they had any human reason left, it was just enough to keep them wondering when they should be slaughtered, and what quality of bacon they should make.

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**Who acts:** creatures, reason, quality · **What happens:** have, leave, be, wonder, slaughter, make · **To what, where:** human reason, creatures · **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 (creatures, reason, quality), 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:pg976:17:53
# text = If they had any human reason left, it was just enough to keep them wondering when they should be slaughtered, and what quality of bacon they should make.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
4	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
5	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	just	just	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	xcomp	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	slaughtered	slaughter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
24	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	obj	_	_
25	quality	quality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	bacon	bacon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | creatures *= creature* | any human reason |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Patient |
| 2 | **leave** | participle |  | any human reason *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | reason |  |  |  |  | enough, keep *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | gerund | reason *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **slaughter** | should · passive |  | creatures *= creature* |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 6 | **make** | should | quality of bacon |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset what=Product |

<!-- .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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