---
title: Sometimes, for instance, she tapped with her finger against the knot… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes, for instance, she tapped with her finger against the knotted trunk of a majestic oak; and immediately its rude bark would cleave asunder, and forth would step a beautiful maiden, who was the hamadryad of the oak, dwelling inside of it, and sharing its long life, and rejoicing when its gre
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 2, sentence 84

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Sometimes, for instance, she tapped with her finger against the knotted trunk of a majestic oak; and immediately its rude bark would cleave asunder, and forth would step a beautiful maiden, who was the hamadryad of the oak, dwelling inside of it, and sharing its long life, and rejoicing when its green leaves sported with the breeze.

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**Who acts:** child, rude bark, green leaves · **What happens:** tap, knot, cleave, step, be, dwell · **To what, where:** asunder, beautiful maiden, hamadryad, bark, long life

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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 (child, rude bark, green leaves), 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:pg976:21:84
# text = Sometimes, for instance, she tapped with her finger against the knotted trunk of a majestic oak; and immediately its rude bark would cleave asunder, and forth would step a beautiful maiden, who was the hamadryad of the oak, dwelling inside of it, and sharing its long life, and rejoicing when its green leaves sported with the breeze.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	instance	instance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	tapped	tap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	against	against	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	knotted	knot	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	amod	_	_
14	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	majestic	majestic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	rude	rude	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	cleave	cleave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
27	asunder	asunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	step	step	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	26	parataxis	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	40	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	hamadryad	hamadryad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
45	dwelling	dwell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
46	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	sharing	share	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
52	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	54	nmod:poss	_	_
53	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	amod	_	_
54	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
56	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
57	rejoicing	rejoice	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	51	conj	_	_
58	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	62	advmod	_	_
59	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	61	nmod:poss	_	_
60	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
61	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	62	nsubj	_	_
62	sported	sport	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	57	advcl	_	_
63	with	with	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
64	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	65	det	_	_
65	breeze	breeze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tap** | past | child |  |  |  |  | for instance; with child's finger; against the knotted trunk of a majestic oak; sometimes *property* | vn investigate-35.4 «NP V NP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for instance=Theme |
| 2 | **knot** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **cleave** | would | oak's rude bark | asunder |  |  |  | immediately *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent asunder=Patient |
| 4 | **step** | would |  | a beautiful maiden and the hamadryad |  |  |  | forth *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location maiden=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | past |  | the hamadryad |  |  |  | of the oak | tree rules |
| 6 | **dwell** | gerund |  |  |  | bark |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme inside it=Location |
| 7 | **share** | gerund | child *not said here* | bark's long life |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **rejoice** | gerund | child *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 9 | **sport** | participle | bark's green leaves |  |  |  |  | with the breeze | tree rules |

<!-- .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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