--- title: While he was speaking, Quicksilver seemed to be in search of somethi… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics description: While he was speaking, Quicksilver seemed to be in search of something; he went stooping along the ground, and soon laid his hand on a little plant with a snow-white flower, which he plucked and smelt of. Who acts: he, Quicksilver. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Pal --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/1/) [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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/) / 1 # Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 4, sentence 1 While he was speaking, Quicksilver seemed to be in search of something; he went stooping along the ground, and soon laid his hand on a little plant with a snow-white flower, which he plucked and smelt of. **Who acts:** he, Quicksilver · **What happens:** speak, seem, be, go, stoop, lay · **To what, where:** search, ground, hand, little plant, white flower · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (he, Quicksilver), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg976:18:1 # text = While he was speaking, Quicksilver seemed to be in search of something; he went stooping along the ground, and soon laid his hand on a little plant with a snow-white flower, which he plucked and smelt of. 1 While while SCONJ IN _ 4 mark _ _ 2 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 3 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 aux _ _ 4 speaking speak VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 7 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ _ 6 Quicksilver quicksilver NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 nsubj _ _ 7 seemed seem VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 8 to to PART TO _ 11 mark _ _ 9 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 11 cop _ _ 10 in in ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 11 search search NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 xcomp _ _ 12 of of ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 13 something something PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 11 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 14 ; ; PUNCT : _ 16 punct _ _ 15 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 16 nsubj _ _ 16 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 parataxis _ _ 17 stooping stoop VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 16 xcomp _ _ 18 along along ADP IN _ 20 case _ _ 19 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 ground ground NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 21 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 24 cc _ _ 23 soon soon ADV RB Degree=Pos 24 advmod _ _ 24 laid lay VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 16 conj _ _ 25 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 26 nmod:poss _ _ 26 hand hand NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obj _ _ 27 on on ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 28 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 29 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 30 amod _ _ 30 plant plant NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obl _ _ 31 with with ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 32 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 33 snow snow NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 34 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 33 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 35 white white ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 36 amod _ _ 36 flower flower NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 37 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 38 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 40 obj _ _ 39 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 40 nsubj _ _ 40 plucked pluck VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 acl:relcl _ _ 41 and and CCONJ CC _ 42 cc _ _ 42 smelt smelt NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 obj _ _ 43 of of ADP IN _ 42 case _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · progressive | he | | | | | | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **seem** | past | Quicksilver | | | | | | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme | | 3 | **is** | to-infinitive | Quicksilver *not said here* | | | search | | of something | tree rules | | 4 | **go** | past | Quicksilver | | | | | | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 5 | **stoop** | gerund | Quicksilver *not said here* | | | the ground | | | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent along ground=Location | | 6 | **lay** | past | Quicksilver *not said here* | Quicksilver's hand | | a little plant with a white flower | | soon *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hand=Theme on plant=Destination | | 7 | **pluck** | past | Quicksilver | a white flower | | | | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent which=Beneficiary smelt=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [Circe's Palace., part 3, 104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/17/104/) - next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/2/) - ↑ back to [Circe's Palace., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/)