---
title: The pair of dragons must have had very nimble wings; for, in less th… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The pair of dragons must have had very nimble wings; for, in less than an hour, Mother Ceres had alighted at the door of her home, and found it empty. Who acts: pair, hour. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 2, sentence 51

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The pair of dragons must have had very nimble wings; for, in less than an hour, Mother Ceres had alighted at the door of her home, and found it empty.

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**Who acts:** pair, hour · **What happens:** have, alight, find · **To what, where:** nimble wings, Mother Ceres, door, home

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pair, hour), 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:pg976:21:51
# text = The pair of dragons must have had very nimble wings; for, in less than an hour, Mother Ceres had alighted at the door of her home, and found it empty.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
5	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	nimble	nimble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	18	advmod	_	_
16	than	than	ADP	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
17	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	Mother	Mother	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Ceres	Ceres	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	alighted	alight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl:relcl	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | must · perfect | the pair of dragons | nimble wings |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=Patient |
| 2 | **alight** | past · perfect · passive | a hour *not said here* | Mother Ceres |  | the door of pair's home |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **find** | past |  | home |  |  |  | empty *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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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