---
title: But this was surely the most magnificent seat that ever a king or an… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But this was surely the most magnificent seat that ever a king or an emperor reposed himself upon, all made of chased gold, studded with precious stones, with a cushion that looked like a soft heap of living roses, and overhung by a canopy of sunlight which Circe knew how to weave into drapery. Who 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/38/)

<!-- 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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/) / 38

# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 4, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But this was surely the most magnificent seat that ever a king or an emperor reposed himself upon, all made of chased gold, studded with precious stones, with a cushion that looked like a soft heap of living roses, and overhung by a canopy of sunlight which Circe knew how to weave into drapery.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** this, king, cushion, Circe · **What happens:** be, repose, make, chase, stud, look · **To what, where:** magnificent seat, all, chased gold, canopy, drapery · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (this, king, cushion, Circe), 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:pg976:18:38
# text = But this was surely the most magnificent seat that ever a king or an emperor reposed himself upon, all made of chased gold, studded with precious stones, with a cushion that looked like a soft heap of living roses, and overhung by a canopy of sunlight which Circe knew how to weave into drapery.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	seat	seat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obl:unmarked	_	_
10	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	12	advmod	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
16	reposed	repose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	_
18	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	parataxis	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	chased	chase	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	studded	stud	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	cushion	cushion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
34	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
35	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	_
36	like	like	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	living	living	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	roses	rose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	overhung	overhang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	conj	_	_
46	by	by	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	canopy	canopy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
49	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nmod	_	_
51	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	53	obj	_	_
52	Circe	Circe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	53	nsubj	_	_
53	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	acl:relcl	_	_
54	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	56	advmod	_	_
55	to	to	PART	TO	_	56	mark	_	_
56	weave	weave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	ccomp	_	_
57	into	into	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	drapery	drapery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | this | the magnificent seat |  |  |  | surely *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **repose** | past | a king or a emperor | the magnificent seat |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location himself=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | participle · passive |  | all |  |  |  | of chased gold; with a cushion | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 4 | **chase** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **stud** | participle |  | chased gold *not said here* |  |  |  | with precious stones | vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with stone=Theme |
| 6 | **look** | past | a cushion |  |  |  |  | like a soft heap of living roses | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 7 | **overhang** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | by a canopy of sunlight | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **know** | past | Circe | a canopy of sunlight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **weave** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | drapery |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into drapery=Destination |

<!-- .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 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/37/)
- next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/39/)
- ↑ back to [Circe's Palace., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/)