---
title: To enable him to walk still better (for he was always on one journey… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: To enable him to walk still better (for he was always on one journey or another) he carried a winged staff, around which two serpents were wriggling and twisting. Who acts: Ulysses, two serpents. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 3, with its dependency tr
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 3, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To enable him to walk still better (for he was always on one journey or another) he carried a winged staff, around which two serpents were wriggling and twisting.

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**Who acts:** Ulysses, two serpents · **What happens:** enable, walk, be, carry, wing, wriggle · **To what, where:** Ulysses, another, winged staff

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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 (Ulysses, two serpents), 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:pg976:17:87
# text = To enable him to walk still better (for he was always on one journey or another) he carried a winged staff, around which two serpents were wriggling and twisting.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	enable	enable	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
6	still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	xcomp	_	_
8	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
12	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	15	advmod	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
16	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	17	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	winged	wing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
23	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	around	around	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	obl	_	_
27	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
29	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	wriggling	wriggle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	acl:relcl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	twisting	twist	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **enable** | to-infinitive |  | Ulysses |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **walk** | to-infinitive | Ulysses *not said here* |  |  |  | still | good *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | Ulysses |  |  |  |  | for one journey; always *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **carry** | past | Ulysses | another |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent staff=Theme |
| 5 | **wing** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **wriggle** | past · progressive | two serpents |  |  | a winged staff |  |  | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **twist** | gerund | two serpents *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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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