---
title: You would hardly believe me, if I were to tell how quickly the baby… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: You would hardly believe me, if I were to tell how quickly the baby prince got rid of his ailments, and grew fat, and rosy, and strong, and how he had two rows of ivory teeth in less time than any other little fellow, before or since. Who acts: You, I, baby prince, Prince. A sentence of «Tanglewood 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4, sentence 3

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You would hardly believe me, if I were to tell how quickly the baby prince got rid of his ailments, and grew fat, and rosy, and strong, and how he had two rows of ivory teeth in less time than any other little fellow, before or since.

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**Who acts:** You, I, baby prince, Prince · **What happens:** believe, tell, get, grow, have, ail · **To what, where:** me, fat, two rows · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, I, baby prince, Prince), 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:pg976:23:3
# text = You would hardly believe me, if I were to tell how quickly the baby prince got rid of his ailments, and grew fat, and rosy, and strong, and how he had two rows of ivory teeth in less time than any other little fellow, before or since.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
12	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
13	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
18	rid	rid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	ailments	ailment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
25	fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	rosy	rosy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	36	advmod	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
37	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	38	nummod	_	_
38	rows	row	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	ivory	ivory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	compound	_	_
41	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	44	amod	_	_
44	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod	_	_
45	than	than	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
46	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	49	det	_	_
47	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
48	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
51	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
52	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
53	since	since	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | would | You |  | me |  |  | hardly *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **get** | past | the baby prince |  |  |  |  | quickly, rid *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **grow** | past |  | fat |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location fat=Theme |
| 5 | **have** | past | Prince | two rows of ivory teeth in less time than any other little fellow |  |  |  | since *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent row=Patient |
| 6 | **ail** |  | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom ailment «state transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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