---
title: But, just at the time when my story begins, the good lady was very b… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But, just at the time when my story begins, the good lady was very busy, because she had the care of the wheat, and the Indian corn, and the rye and barley and, in short, of the crops of every kind, all over the earth; and as the season had thus far been uncommonly backward, it was necessary to make
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 1, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, just at the time when my story begins, the good lady was very busy, because she had the care of the wheat, and the Indian corn, and the rye and barley and, in short, of the crops of every kind, all over the earth; and as the season had thus far been uncommonly backward, it was necessary to make the harvest ripen more speedily than usual.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** story, good lady, season, busy, wheat · **What happens:** begin, be, have, make, ripen, care · **To what, where:** care, harvest

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (story, good lady, season, busy), 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:pg976:20:2
# text = But, just at the time when my story begins, the good lady was very busy, because she had the care of the wheat, and the Indian corn, and the rye and barley and, in short, of the crops of every kind, all over the earth; and as the season had thus far been uncommonly backward, it was necessary to make the harvest ripen more speedily than usual.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
7	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	10	mark	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	begins	begin	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	very	very	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	73	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	wheat	wheat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	Indian	Indian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	rye	rye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	parataxis	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	barley	barley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	crops	crop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obl	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	48	det	_	_
48	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
50	all	all	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
51	over	over	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	68	punct	_	_
55	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	68	cc	_	_
56	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	59	mark	_	_
57	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	nsubj	_	_
59	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	68	advcl	_	_
60	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	64	advmod	_	_
61	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	64	advmod	_	_
62	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	64	cop	_	_
63	uncommonly	uncommonly	ADV	RB	_	64	advmod	_	_
64	backward	backward	ADV	RB	_	59	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
66	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	68	expl	_	_
67	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	68	cop	_	_
68	necessary	necessary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	_
69	to	to	PART	TO	_	70	mark	_	_
70	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	68	csubj	_	_
71	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	72	det	_	_
72	harvest	harvest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	70	obj	_	_
73	ripen	ripen	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
74	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	75	advmod	_	_
75	speedily	speedily	ADV	RB	_	73	advmod	_	_
76	than	than	ADP	IN	_	77	case	_	_
77	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	75	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
78	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	73	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | present | my story |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | past | the good lady |  |  |  | time | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | story | the care of the wheat |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent care=Patient |
| 4 | **have** | past | the season |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | backward, far, thus, uncommonly *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past | the good lady *not said here* |  |  |  |  | necessary *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **make** | to-infinitive |  | the harvest |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset harvest=Product |
| 8 | **ripen** | present | busy |  |  |  |  | speedily *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 9 | **care** |  | the wheat |  |  |  |  |  | nom care «act 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.

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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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