---
title: But young people's tears have very little saltness or acidity in the… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But young people's tears have very little saltness or acidity in them, and do not inflame the eyes so much as those of grown persons; so that it is not to be wondered at, if, a few moments afterwards, Proserpina was sporting through the hall almost as merrily as she and the four sea nymphs had sport
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4, sentence 79

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But young people's tears have very little saltness or acidity in them, and do not inflame the eyes so much as those of grown persons; so that it is not to be wondered at, if, a few moments afterwards, Proserpina was sporting through the hall almost as merrily as she and the four sea nymphs had sported along the edge of the surf wave.

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**Who acts:** tears, few moments · **What happens:** have, not inflame, grow, not be, sport · **To what, where:** little saltness, eyes, acidity, hall, Proserpina

<!-- .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 (tears, few moments), 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:pg976:23:79
# text = But young people's tears have very little saltness or acidity in them, and do not inflame the eyes so much as those of grown persons; so that it is not to be wondered at, if, a few moments afterwards, Proserpina was sporting through the hall almost as merrily as she and the four sea nymphs had sported along the edge of the surf wave.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	saltness	saltness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	acidity	acidity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	do	do	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	inflame	inflame	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	22	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	amod	_	_
27	persons	person	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
29	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	36	mark	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	fixed	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	36	advmod	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
37	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
39	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	moments	moment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	nsubj	_	_
44	afterwards	afterwards	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
46	Proserpina	Proserpina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
47	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	aux	_	_
48	sporting	sport	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	36	advcl	_	_
49	through	through	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
52	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	_
53	as	as	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	_
54	merrily	merrily	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
55	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	63	mark	_	_
56	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	63	nsubj:pass	_	_
57	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	61	cc	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
59	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	61	nummod	_	_
60	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	61	compound	_	_
61	nymphs	nymph	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	56	conj	_	_
62	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	63	aux	_	_
63	sported	sport	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	54	advcl	_	_
64	along	along	ADP	IN	_	66	case	_	_
65	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
66	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	obl	_	_
67	of	of	ADP	IN	_	70	case	_	_
68	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	70	det	_	_
69	surf	surf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	70	compound	_	_
70	wave	wave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	66	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
71	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | young people's tears | little saltness or acidity in saltness |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent saltness=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **inflame** | infinitive · do-support | young people's tears *not said here* | the eyes |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus eye=Experiencer |
| 3 | **grow** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **is** | present · passive |  | acidity |  |  |  | wonder *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **sport** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | a few moments |  |  | the hall |  | merrily *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **sport** | past · perfect · passive |  | Proserpina |  |  |  | along the edge of the surf wave | tree rules |

<!-- .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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