---
title: The chief butler liked nothing better than to see people turned into… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The chief butler liked nothing better than to see people turned into swine, or making any kind of a beast of themselves; so he made haste to bring the royal goblet, filled with a liquid as bright as gold, and which kept sparkling upward, and throwing a sunny spray over the brim. Who acts: chief butl
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 4, sentence 49

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The chief butler liked nothing better than to see people turned into swine, or making any kind of a beast of themselves; so he made haste to bring the royal goblet, filled with a liquid as bright as gold, and which kept sparkling upward, and throwing a sunny spray over the brim.

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**Who acts:** chief butler, people, Ulysses · **What happens:** like, see, turn, make, haste, bring · **To what, where:** nothing, swine, kind, royal goblet, sunny spray, brim · **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 (chief butler, people, Ulysses), 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:pg976:18:49
# text = The chief butler liked nothing better than to see people turned into swine, or making any kind of a beast of themselves; so he made haste to bring the royal goblet, filled with a liquid as bright as gold, and which kept sparkling upward, and throwing a sunny spray over the brim.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	chief	chief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	butler	butler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	obj	_	_
6	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
7	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
10	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	swine	swine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
17	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
18	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	made	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	haste	haste	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	goblet	goblet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	filled	fill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	acl	_	_
36	with	with	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	liquid	liquid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
39	as	as	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
41	as	as	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
45	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	46	nsubj	_	_
46	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
47	sparkling	sparkle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	46	xcomp	_	_
48	upward	upward	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	47	conj	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
53	sunny	sunny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	amod	_	_
54	spray	spray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obj	_	_
55	over	over	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
56	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
57	brim	brim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** | past | the chief butler | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot nothing=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive | the chief butler *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **turn** | past | people |  |  | swine |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into swine=Trajectory |
| 4 | **make** | gerund | people *not said here* | any kind of a beast of people |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset kind=Product |
| 5 | **haste** | may | Ulysses |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **bring** | to-infinitive | Ulysses *not said here* | the royal goblet |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent goblet=Theme |
| 7 | **fill** | participle |  | the royal goblet *not said here* |  |  |  | with a liquid | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with liquid=Instrument |
| 8 | **keep** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **sparkle** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | upward *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 10 | **throw** | gerund |  | a sunny spray |  | the brim |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent spray=Theme over brim=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.

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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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