---
title: Now, as not so much as a head of asparagus ever presumed to poke its… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Now, as not so much as a head of asparagus ever presumed to poke itself out of the ground, without the especial permission of Ceres, you may conceive what a terrible calamity had here fallen upon the earth. Who acts: you, terrible calamity. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Th
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4, sentence 37

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Now, as not so much as a head of asparagus ever presumed to poke itself out of the ground, without the especial permission of Ceres, you may conceive what a terrible calamity had here fallen upon the earth.

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**Who acts:** you, terrible calamity · **What happens:** presume, poke, conceive, fall, permit · **To what, where:** head, ground, much, Ceres

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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, terrible calamity), 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:pg976:23:37
# text = Now, as not so much as a head of asparagus ever presumed to poke itself out of the ground, without the especial permission of Ceres, you may conceive what a terrible calamity had here fallen upon the earth.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	obj	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	asparagus	asparagus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
12	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	13	advmod	_	_
13	presumed	presume	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	poke	poke	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obj	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	without	without	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	especial	especial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	permission	permission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	Ceres	Ceres	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	conceive	conceive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
32	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	38	obj	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	calamity	calamity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
37	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	38	advmod	_	_
38	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	ccomp	_	_
39	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **presume** | participle · passive |  | a head |  |  | ever | of asparagus | tree rules |
| 2 | **poke** | to-infinitive |  | head |  | the ground |  | without the especial permission of Ceres | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent itself=Theme |
| 3 | **conceive** | may | you | much |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent much=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **fall** | past · perfect | a terrible calamity |  |  | here |  | upon the earth | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient what=Result |
| 5 | **permit** |  |  | Ceres |  |  |  |  | nom permission «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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