---
title: It was a wonder to behold how their snouts grew shorter and shorter,… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a wonder to behold how their snouts grew shorter and shorter, and their mouths (which they seemed to be sorry for, because they could not gobble so expeditiously) smaller and smaller, and how one and another began to stand upon his hind legs, and scratch his nose with his fore trotters. Who a
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/18/95/)

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# Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace., part 4, sentence 95

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It was a wonder to behold how their snouts grew shorter and shorter, and their mouths (which they seemed to be sorry for, because they could not gobble so expeditiously) smaller and smaller, and how one and another began to stand upon his hind legs, and scratch his nose with his fore trotters.

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**Who acts:** hog, snouts, one · **What happens:** be, behold, grow, seem, not gobble, begin · **To what, where:** wonder, mouths, hind legs, nose

<!-- .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 (hog, snouts, one), 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:pg976:18:95
# text = It was a wonder to behold how their snouts grew shorter and shorter, and their mouths (which they seemed to be sorry for, because they could not gobble so expeditiously) smaller and smaller, and how one and another began to stand upon his hind legs, and scratch his nose with his fore trotters.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	behold	behold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	snouts	snout	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
11	shorter	short	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	10	xcomp	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	shorter	short	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
18	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obj	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
24	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	gobble	gobble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	expeditiously	expeditiously	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	33	punct	_	_
35	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	31	advcl	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
40	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	41	advmod	_	_
41	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	44	nsubj	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	41	conj	_	_
44	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	xcomp	_	_
47	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
48	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
49	hind	hind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
53	scratch	scratch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	conj	_	_
54	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	55	nmod:poss	_	_
55	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obj	_	_
56	with	with	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
57	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	59	nmod:poss	_	_
58	fore	fore	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	59	amod	_	_
59	trotters	trotter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | hog | a wonder and snouts's mouths |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **behold** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **grow** | past | wonder's snouts |  |  |  |  | short *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **seem** | past | snouts *= snout* | snouts's mouths |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme which=Attribute |
| 5 | **is** | to-infinitive | snouts *= snout* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **gobble** | could | snouts *= snout* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **begin** | past | one |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 8 | **stand** | to-infinitive | one *not said here* |  |  | hamadryad's hind legs |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon leg=Location |
| 9 | **scratch** | infinitive | one *not said here* | hamadryad's nose |  |  |  | with hamadryad's fore trotters | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nose=Patient with trotter=Instrument |

<!-- .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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