---
title: But she might just as well have talked to the wind that whistled pas… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But she might just as well have talked to the wind that whistled past them, for Pluto urged on his horses, and went faster than ever. Who acts: Mother, wind, Pluto. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 1, sentence 98

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But she might just as well have talked to the wind that whistled past them, for Pluto urged on his horses, and went faster than ever.

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**Who acts:** Mother, wind, Pluto · **What happens:** talk, whistle, urge, go

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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 (Mother, wind, Pluto), 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:pg976:20:98
# text = But she might just as well have talked to the wind that whistled past them, for Pluto urged on his horses, and went faster than ever.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
4	just	just	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
5	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	8	cc	_	_
6	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	fixed	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	talked	talk	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	whistled	whistle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	past	past	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	Pluto	Pluto	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	urged	urge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	25	advmod	_	_
27	than	than	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | might · perfect | Mother |  |  |  |  | to the wind | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to wind=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **whistle** | past | the wind |  |  |  |  | past riches *= rich* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **urge** | past | Pluto |  |  |  |  | on Pluto's horses | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **go** | past | Pluto *not said here* |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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