---
title: It is a mere skeleton of slender, decaying tree trunks, with neither… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It is a mere skeleton of slender, decaying tree trunks, with neither walls nor a roof; nothing but a tracery of branches and twigs, which the next wintry blast will be very likely to scatter in fragments along the terrace. Who acts: thing, tracery. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawth
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Wayside. Introductory., sentence 12

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It is a mere skeleton of slender, decaying tree trunks, with neither walls nor a roof; nothing but a tracery of branches and twigs, which the next wintry blast will be very likely to scatter in fragments along the terrace.

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**Who acts:** thing, tracery · **What happens:** be, decay, scatter · **To what, where:** mere skeleton, tree trunks, fragments

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Wayside. Introductory.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thing, tracery), 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:pg976:2:12
# text = It is a mere skeleton of slender, decaying tree trunks, with neither walls nor a roof; nothing but a tracery of branches and twigs, which the next wintry blast will be very likely to scatter in fragments along the terrace.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	mere	mere	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	decaying	decay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
10	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	trunks	trunk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
15	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
16	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	18	cc	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	parataxis	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	tracery	tracery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	twigs	twig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	37	nsubj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	wintry	wintry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	blast	blast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
34	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	cop	_	_
36	very	very	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	parataxis	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	scatter	scatter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	xcomp	_	_
40	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	fragments	fragment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	_
42	along	along	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	terrace	terrace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | thing | a mere skeleton |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **decay** | gerund | thing *not said here* | tree trunks |  |  |  | with neither walls nor a roof | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | future | a tracery of branches and twigs |  |  |  |  | likely *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **scatter** | to-infinitive | a tracery of branches and twigs *not said here* |  |  | fragments |  | along the terrace | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme in fragment=Destination |

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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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