---
title: It took them such a tedious while to tell the nothing that they knew… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It took them such a tedious while to tell the nothing that they knew, that it was dark night before Mother Ceres found out that she must seek her daughter elsewhere. Who acts: It, vervain, fisherman, Mother. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 2, wit
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 2, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It took them such a tedious while to tell the nothing that they knew, that it was dark night before Mother Ceres found out that she must seek her daughter elsewhere.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, vervain, fisherman, Mother · **What happens:** take, tell, know, be, find out, seek · **To what, where:** vervain, nothing, dark night, daughter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (It, vervain, fisherman, Mother), 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:pg976:21:66
# text = It took them such a tedious while to tell the nothing that they knew, that it was dark night before Mother Ceres found out that she must seek her daughter elsewhere.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	7	det:predet	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	tedious	tedious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	9	obj	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
21	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	Mother	Mother	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	Ceres	Ceres	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	flat	_	_
24	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
25	out	out	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	elsewhere	elsewhere	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | It | vervain |  |  | while |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent nothing=Recipient |
| 3 | **know** | past | vervain |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | past | fisherman | dark night |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **find out** | past | Mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **seek** | must | mother | mother's daughter |  |  |  | elsewhere *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Theme |

<!-- .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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