---
title: So he ran as fast as he could down the steps, and never stopped to d… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So he ran as fast as he could down the steps, and never stopped to draw breath till he reached the shore. Who acts: uproar. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/17/56/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Tanglewood Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/) / [Circe's Palace., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/17/) / 56

# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 3, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So he ran as fast as he could down the steps, and never stopped to draw breath till he reached the shore.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** uproar · **What happens:** run, down, not stop, draw, reach · **To what, where:** steps, breath, shore

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (uproar), 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:pg976:17:56
# text = So he ran as fast as he could down the steps, and never stopped to draw breath till he reached the shore.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	down	down	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
19	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | past | uproar |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **down** | could | uproar | the steps |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent step=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **stop** | past | uproar *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **draw** | to-infinitive | uproar *not said here* | breath |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breath=Theme |
| 5 | **reach** | past | uproar | the shore |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent shore=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/17/55/)
- next →: [sentence 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/17/57/)
- ↑ back to [Circe's Palace., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/17/)