---
title: To say the truth, there was a suspicious kind of a grunt in their vo… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: To say the truth, there was a suspicious kind of a grunt in their voices, and, for a long time afterwards, they spoke gruffly, and were apt to set up a squeal. Who acts: suspicious kind, troubles. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 4, with its dependency t
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 4, sentence 106

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To say the truth, there was a suspicious kind of a grunt in their voices, and, for a long time afterwards, they spoke gruffly, and were apt to set up a squeal.

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**Who acts:** suspicious kind, troubles · **What happens:** say, be, speak, set up · **To what, where:** truth, squeal · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (suspicious kind, troubles), 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:pg976:18:106
# text = To say the truth, there was a suspicious kind of a grunt in their voices, and, for a long time afterwards, they spoke gruffly, and were apt to set up a squeal.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	say	say	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	7	expl	_	_
7	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	suspicious	suspicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	grunt	grunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
24	afterwards	afterwards	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
28	gruffly	gruffly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	apt	apt	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	csubj	_	_
35	up	up	ADP	RP	_	34	compound:prt	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	squeal	squeal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  | the truth |  |  | time |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent truth=Topic |
| 2 | **be** | past | a suspicious kind of a grunt in troubles's voices |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | troubles *= trouble* |  |  |  |  | gruffly *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | troubles *= trouble* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | apt *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **set up** | to-infinitive |  | a squeal |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient squeal=Result |

<!-- .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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