---
title: In the loftiest seats of dignity, on royal thrones, they could think… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In the loftiest seats of dignity, on royal thrones, they could think of nothing but their greedy appetite, which was the portion of their nature that they shared with wolves and swine; so that they resembled those vilest of animals far more than they did kings--if, indeed, kings were what they ought
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 3, sentence 9

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In the loftiest seats of dignity, on royal thrones, they could think of nothing but their greedy appetite, which was the portion of their nature that they shared with wolves and swine; so that they resembled those vilest of animals far more than they did kings--if, indeed, kings were what they ought to be.

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**Who acts:** seats, kings · **What happens:** think, be, share, resemble, do · **To what, where:** loftiest seats, portion, vilest, kings

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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 (seats, kings), 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:pg976:17:9
# text = In the loftiest seats of dignity, on royal thrones, they could think of nothing but their greedy appetite, which was the portion of their nature that they shared with wolves and swine; so that they resembled those vilest of animals far more than they did kings--if, indeed, kings were what they ought to be.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	loftiest	lofty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	seats	seat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	dignity	dignity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	thrones	throne	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	14	obl	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	greedy	greedy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	appetite	appetite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	portion	portion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	shared	share	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	swine	swine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	40	punct	_	_
37	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	40	mark	_	_
38	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	fixed	_	_
39	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	resembled	resemble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
41	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	42	det	_	_
42	vilest	vile	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	40	obj	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	nmod	_	_
45	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	46	advmod	_	_
46	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	40	advmod	_	_
47	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	49	mark	_	_
48	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
49	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	advcl	_	_
50	kings	king	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	58	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
54	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	58	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
56	kings	king	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	58	nsubj	_	_
57	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	58	cop	_	_
58	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	conj	_	_
59	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj	_	_
60	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	58	acl:relcl	_	_
61	to	to	PART	TO	_	62	mark	_	_
62	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	60	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | could | seats *= seat* |  |  | the loftiest seats of dignity and royal thrones |  | of nothing | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | the portion |  |  |  | of seats's nature | tree rules |
| 3 | **share** | past | seats *= seat* |  |  |  |  | with wolves and swine | tree rules |
| 4 | **resemble** | past | seats *= seat* | that vilest of animals |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **do** | past | seats *= seat* | kings |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Eventuality |
| 6 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | kings |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **be** | to-infinitive | kings *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP 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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