---
title: Instead of the palest, and wretchedest, and puniest imp in the world… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Instead of the palest, and wretchedest, and puniest imp in the world (as his own mother confessed him to be, when Ceres first took him in charge), he was now a strapping baby, crowing, laughing, kicking up his heels, and rolling from one end of the room to the other. Who acts: own mother, Ceres, Pri
---

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

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Instead of the palest, and wretchedest, and puniest imp in the world (as his own mother confessed him to be, when Ceres first took him in charge), he was now a strapping baby, crowing, laughing, kicking up his heels, and rolling from one end of the room to the other.

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**Who acts:** own mother, Ceres, Prince · **What happens:** confess, be, take, strap, crow, laugh · **To what, where:** Prince, charge, strapping baby, heels, one end

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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 (own mother, Ceres, 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:pg976:23:4
# text = Instead of the palest, and wretchedest, and puniest imp in the world (as his own mother confessed him to be, when Ceres first took him in charge), he was now a strapping baby, crowing, laughing, kicking up his heels, and rolling from one end of the room to the other.
1	Instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	4	case	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	palest	pale	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	wretchedest	wretched	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	puniest	puny	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	amod	_	_
11	imp	imp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	confessed	confess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
26	Ceres	Cere	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
27	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	28	advmod	_	_
28	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	charge	charge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
36	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	39	advmod	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	strapping	strap	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	39	amod	_	_
39	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
41	crowing	crow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	39	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
43	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
45	kicking	kick	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	41	conj	_	_
46	up	up	ADP	RP	_	45	compound:prt	_	_
47	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	41	conj	_	_
52	from	from	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	54	nummod	_	_
54	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
56	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
57	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod	_	_
58	to	to	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
59	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	60	det	_	_
60	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **confess** | past | Prince's own mother | Prince |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent he=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | to-infinitive | Prince's own mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past | Ceres | Prince |  | charge |  | first *property* | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Value in charge=Location |
| 4 | **strap** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **is a** | past | Prince | a strapping baby |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **crow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **laugh** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **kick up** | gerund |  | Prince's heels |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent heel=Patient |
| 9 | **roll** | gerund |  |  |  |  | from one end of the room | to the other | vn slide-11.2-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme from end=Initial\_Location to other=Destination |

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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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