---
title: They were a frolicsome kind of creature but grew as sad as their che… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They were a frolicsome kind of creature but grew as sad as their cheerful dispositions would allow, when Ceres inquired for her daughter, and they had no good news to tell. Who acts: horns, cheerful dispositions, Ceres. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds.,
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 2, sentence 90

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They were a frolicsome kind of creature but grew as sad as their cheerful dispositions would allow, when Ceres inquired for her daughter, and they had no good news to tell.

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**Who acts:** horns, cheerful dispositions, Ceres · **What happens:** be, grow, allow, inquire, have, tell · **To what, where:** frolicsome kind, good news · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (horns, cheerful dispositions, Ceres), 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:pg976:21:90
# text = They were a frolicsome kind of creature but grew as sad as their cheerful dispositions would allow, when Ceres inquired for her daughter, and they had no good news to tell.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	frolicsome	frolicsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	as	as	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	dispositions	disposition	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	Ceres	Ceres	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
29	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	31	det	_	_
30	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | horns *= horn* | a frolicsome kind |  |  |  | of creature | tree rules |
| 2 | **grow** | past | horns *= horn* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sad *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **allow** | would | horns's cheerful dispositions |  |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Causer |
| 4 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past | Ceres |  |  |  |  | for child's daughter | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **have** | past | horns *= horn* | no good news |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent news=Patient |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | horns *= horn* *not said here* | no good news *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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