---
title: May I not run down to the shore, and ask some of the sea nymphs to c… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: May I not run down to the shore, and ask some of the sea nymphs to come up out of the waves and play with me?" Who acts: I, some. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 1, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
May I not run down to the shore, and ask some of the sea nymphs to come up out of the waves and play with me?"

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**Who acts:** I, some · **What happens:** not run down, ask, come up, play · **To what, where:** some, waves

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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 (I, some), 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:pg976:20:5
# text = May I not run down to the shore, and ask some of the sea nymphs to come up out of the waves and play with me?"
1	May	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	nymphs	nymph	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
19	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	play	play	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **run down** | may | I |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | I *not said here* | some |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent some=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come up** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | some *not said here* |  |  | the waves |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme out wave=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **play** | present | some *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with me | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with i=Co-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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