---
title: The old people shook their white heads, and said that the earth had… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The old people shook their white heads, and said that the earth had grown aged like themselves, and was no longer capable of wearing the warm smile of summer on its face. Who acts: old people. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4, with its dependenc
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old people shook their white heads, and said that the earth had grown aged like themselves, and was no longer capable of wearing the warm smile of summer on its face.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old people · **What happens:** shake, say, grow, age, be, wear · **To what, where:** white heads, earth, warm smile, face, summer · **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 (old people), 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:pg976:23:42
# text = The old people shook their white heads, and said that the earth had grown aged like themselves, and was no longer capable of wearing the warm smile of summer on its face.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	ccomp	_	_
16	aged	age	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	xcomp	_	_
17	like	like	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	no	no	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	24	advmod	_	_
24	capable	capable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
25	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	wearing	wear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shake** | past | the old people | people's white heads |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **grow** | past · perfect · passive |  | the earth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **age** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | like people | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | capable, long *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **wear** | gerund |  | the warm smile of summer |  | earth's face |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent smile=Source |
| 7 | **smile** |  |  | summer |  |  |  |  | nom smile «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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