---
title: Before Proserpina knew what she was about, her teeth had actually bi… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Before Proserpina knew what she was about, her teeth had actually bitten it, of their own accord. Who acts: Proserpina. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 5, sentence 10

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Before Proserpina knew what she was about, her teeth had actually bitten it, of their own accord.

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**Who acts:** Proserpina · **What happens:** know, be, bite · **To what, where:** teeth

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 5. 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.

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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:pg976:24:10
# text = Before Proserpina knew what she was about, her teeth had actually bitten it, of their own accord.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	Proserpina	Proserpina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	obj	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	about	about	ADV	RB	_	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	actually	actually	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	bitten	bite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	accord	accord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | Proserpina |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | Proserpina |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **bite** | past · perfect · passive |  | Proserpina's teeth |  |  |  | actually *property* | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP ADJP»: subject=Patient it=Result |

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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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