---
title: This woman (if woman it were) was by no means so beautiful as many o… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: This woman (if woman it were) was by no means so beautiful as many of her sex; for her head, they tell me, was shaped very much like a dog's, and, by way of ornament, she wore a wreath of snakes around it. Who acts: woman, leaves. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegran
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 3, sentence 7

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This woman (if woman it were) was by no means so beautiful as many of her sex; for her head, they tell me, was shaped very much like a dog's, and, by way of ornament, she wore a wreath of snakes around it.

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**Who acts:** woman, leaves · **What happens:** mean, tell, shape, wear, sex · **To what, where:** me, wreath, glimpse · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman, leaves), 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:pg976:22:7
# text = This woman (if woman it were) was by no means so beautiful as many of her sex; for her head, they tell me, was shaped very much like a dog's, and, by way of ornament, she wore a wreath of snakes around it.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
3	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	5	punct	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	obl	_	_
12	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	sex	sex	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	shaped	shape	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	xcomp	_	_
31	very	very	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	much	much	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
33	like	like	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	's	's	PART	POS	_	35	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	by	by	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	ornament	ornament	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
45	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
46	wore	wear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	parataxis	_	_
47	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	wreath	wreath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
49	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	nmod	_	_
51	around	around	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present | this woman |  |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | leaves *= leaf* |  | me |  |  | for woman's head | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **shape** *not said to happen* | past · passive | leaves *= leaf* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a dog | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP» |
| 4 | **wear** | past | woman | a wreath of snakes |  | glimpse |  | by way of ornament | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent wreath=Source |
| 5 | **sex** |  | woman |  |  |  |  |  | nom sex «act transitive»: poss=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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