---
title: She had been idly watching the flame for some moments past, when, al… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: She had been idly watching the flame for some moments past, when, all at once, it flickered and went out. Who acts: mother, flame. 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 42

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She had been idly watching the flame for some moments past, when, all at once, it flickered and went out.

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**Who acts:** mother, flame · **What happens:** watch, flicker, go out · **To what, where:** flame

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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 (mother, flame), 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:pg976:24:42
# text = She had been idly watching the flame for some moments past, when, all at once, it flickered and went out.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	aux	_	_
4	idly	idly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	flame	flame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	moments	moment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
11	past	past	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	all	all	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	flickered	flicker	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
23	out	out	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | past · perfect · progressive | mother | the flame |  |  | moment | idly, past *property* | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flame=Theme |
| 2 | **flicker** | past | flame |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **go out** | past | flame *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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