---
title: When men once turn to brutes, the trifle of man's wit that remains i… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When men once turn to brutes, the trifle of man's wit that remains in them adds tenfold to their brutality. Who acts: men, wit, trifle. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 4, sentence 82

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When men once turn to brutes, the trifle of man's wit that remains in them adds tenfold to their brutality.

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**Who acts:** men, wit, trifle · **What happens:** turn, remain, add · **To what, where:** brutes, tenfold

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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 (men, wit, trifle), 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:pg976:18:82
# text = When men once turn to brutes, the trifle of man's wit that remains in them adds tenfold to their brutality.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
4	turn	turn	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	brutes	brute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	trifle	trifle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	's	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	wit	wit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	remains	remain	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
18	adds	add	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	tenfold	tenfold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	brutality	brutality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | present | men |  |  | brutes |  | once *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to brute=Trajectory |
| 2 | **remain** | present | man's wit |  |  |  |  | in men *= man* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in they=Location |
| 3 | **add** *speech: assert* | present | the trifle of man's wit | tenfold |  |  |  | to men's brutality | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent tenfold=Patient to brutality=Co-Patient |

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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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