---
title: It was curious, in the midst of their distress, to observe them thru… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was curious, in the midst of their distress, to observe them thrusting their noses into the mire, in quest of something to eat. Who acts: swine, comrades, something. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Circe's Palace., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 4, sentence 86

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It was curious, in the midst of their distress, to observe them thrusting their noses into the mire, in quest of something to eat.

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**Who acts:** swine, comrades, something · **What happens:** be, observe, thrust, eat, distress, quest · **To what, where:** midst, comrades, noses, mire

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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 (swine, comrades, something), 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:pg976:18:86
# text = It was curious, in the midst of their distress, to observe them thrusting their noses into the mire, in quest of something to eat.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	distress	distress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	observe	observe	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	thrusting	thrust	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	noses	nose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	mire	mire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	quest	quest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	nmod	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | swine |  |  | the midst of comrades's distress |  | curious *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **observe** | to-infinitive |  | comrades *= comrade* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent they=Topic |
| 3 | **thrust** | gerund |  | comrades's noses |  | the mire |  | in quest of something | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nose=Theme |
| 4 | **eat** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **distress** |  | comrades *= comrade* |  |  |  |  |  | nom distress «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **quest** |  | something |  |  |  |  |  | nom quest «cognition intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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