---
title: "I was a mother once," Ceres always replied; "and having nursed my o… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "I was a mother once," Ceres always replied; "and having nursed my own child, I know what other children need." Who acts: Ceres, other children. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 4, sentence 8

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"I was a mother once," Ceres always replied; "and having nursed my own child, I know what other children need."

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**Who acts:** Ceres, other children · **What happens:** be, reply, nurse, know, need · **To what, where:** mother, own child · **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 (Ceres, other children), 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:pg976:23:8
# text = "I was a mother once," Ceres always replied; "and having nursed my own child, I know what other children need."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
9	Ceres	Cere	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
10	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	11	advmod	_	_
11	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	aux	_	_
16	nursed	nurse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	26	obj	_	_
24	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	need	need	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | Ceres *= cere* | a mother |  |  |  | once *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | participle | Ceres |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **nurse** *in a quote* | gerund · perfect | Ceres *not said here* |  | my own child |  |  |  | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **know** *in a quote* | present | Ceres *= cere* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **need** *in a quote* | present | other children |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |

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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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