---
title: To confess the truth, I myself had already reflected that it was an… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: To confess the truth, I myself had already reflected that it was an unjustifiable act to take you away from your good mother. Who acts: truth. 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 16

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To confess the truth, I myself had already reflected that it was an unjustifiable act to take you away from your good mother.

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**Who acts:** truth · **What happens:** confess, reflect, be, take · **To what, where:** truth, I, unjustifiable act, you

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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 (truth), 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:pg976:24:16
# text = To confess the truth, I myself had already reflected that it was an unjustifiable act to take you away from your good mother.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	confess	confess	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
7	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	already	already	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	reflected	reflect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	unjustifiable	unjustifiable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	act	act	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	acl	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **confess** | to-infinitive |  | the truth |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent truth=Topic |
| 2 | **reflect** | past · perfect · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | past | truth | a unjustifiable act |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **take** | to-infinitive |  |  | you |  |  | away *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument you=Destination |

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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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