---
title: But her good mother had often told her of the hurtfulness of these t… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But her good mother had often told her of the hurtfulness of these things; and for that reason alone, if there had been no other, she would have resolutely refused to taste them. Who acts: Proserpina. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4, with its d
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But her good mother had often told her of the hurtfulness of these things; and for that reason alone, if there had been no other, she would have resolutely refused to taste them.

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**Who acts:** Proserpina · **What happens:** tell, be, refuse, not taste · **To what, where:** good mother, Proserpina, people · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Proserpina), 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:pg976:23:56
# text = But her good mother had often told her of the hurtfulness of these things; and for that reason alone, if there had been no other, she would have resolutely refused to taste them.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	often	often	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	hurtfulness	hurtfulness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	parataxis	_	_
20	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	25	expl	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	cop	_	_
26	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	27	det	_	_
27	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
31	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux	_	_
32	resolutely	resolutely	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	refused	refuse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	conj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	taste	taste	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · perfect · passive |  | Proserpina's good mother | Proserpina |  |  | of the hurtfulness of this things; often *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient she=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | other *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **refuse** | would · perfect | Proserpina |  |  |  |  | resolutely *property* | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **taste** | to-infinitive | Proserpina *not said here* | people |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme they=Attribute |

<!-- .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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