---
title: It was idle, however, to imagine that an airy guest from Monument Mo… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was idle, however, to imagine that an airy guest from Monument Mountain, Bald Summit, and old Graylock, shaggy with primeval forests, could see anything to admire in my poor little hillside, with its growth of frail and insect-eaten locust trees. Who acts: place, old Graylock, anything, frail. A 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/2/6/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Tanglewood Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/) / [The Wayside. Introductory.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/2/) / 6

# Tanglewood Tales, The Wayside. Introductory., sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was idle, however, to imagine that an airy guest from Monument Mountain, Bald Summit, and old Graylock, shaggy with primeval forests, could see anything to admire in my poor little hillside, with its growth of frail and insect-eaten locust trees.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** place, old Graylock, anything, frail · **What happens:** be, imagine, see, admire, eat, grow · **To what, where:** anything, poor little hillside

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (place, old Graylock, anything, frail), 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:pg976:2:6
# text = It was idle, however, to imagine that an airy guest from Monument Mountain, Bald Summit, and old Graylock, shaggy with primeval forests, could see anything to admire in my poor little hillside, with its growth of frail and insect-eaten locust trees.
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	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	however	however	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	airy	airy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	guest	guest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Monument	Monument	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	Mountain	Mountain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	Bald	bald	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	Summit	summit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
21	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	Graylock	Graylock	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	shaggy	shaggy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	primeval	primeval	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
31	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	30	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	admire	admire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
35	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
36	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
37	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	hillside	hillside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
40	with	with	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	growth	growth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	frail	frail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
46	insect	insect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	46	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	50	amod	_	_
49	locust	locust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	compound	_	_
50	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | place |  |  |  |  | idle *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **imagine** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **see** | could | old Graylock | anything |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **admire** | to-infinitive | anything *not said here* |  |  | my poor little hillside |  | with place's growth of frail and eaten locust trees | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **eat** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **grow** |  | frail |  |  |  |  |  | nom growth «process intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/2/5/)
- next →: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/2/7/)
- ↑ back to [The Wayside. Introductory.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/2/)