---
title: "Why should you be so frightened, my pretty child?" said he, trying… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Why should you be so frightened, my pretty child?" said he, trying to soften his rough voice. " Who acts: you, stranger. 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 72

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"Why should you be so frightened, my pretty child?" said he, trying to soften his rough voice. "

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**Who acts:** you, stranger · **What happens:** be, say, try, soften · **To what, where:** rough voice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you, stranger), 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:pg976:20:72
# text = "Why should you be so frightened, my pretty child?" said he, trying to soften his rough voice. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	frightened	frightened	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	soften	soften	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	rough	rough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | should | you |  |  |  |  | frightened *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | stranger |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **try** | gerund | stranger *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **soften** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | stranger *not said here* | stranger's rough voice |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent voice=Patient |

<!-- .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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