---
title: Saying this, the old woman poked with her staff in the river, as if… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Saying this, the old woman poked with her staff in the river, as if to find the safest place in its rocky bed where she might make the first step. Who acts: mother. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 1, sentence 53

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Saying this, the old woman poked with her staff in the river, as if to find the safest place in its rocky bed where she might make the first step.

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**Who acts:** mother · **What happens:** say, poke, find, make · **To what, where:** this, old woman, river, safest place, rocky bed, first step · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother), 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:pg976:25:53
# text = Saying this, the old woman poked with her staff in the river, as if to find the safest place in its rocky bed where she might make the first step.
1	Saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
7	poked	poke	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	safest	safe	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	amod	_	_
21	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	rocky	rocky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
26	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	29	advmod	_	_
27	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	32	amod	_	_
32	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund |  | this |  |  |  | the old woman *obl* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent this=Topic |
| 2 | **poke** | participle |  | the old woman *not said here* |  | the river |  | with mother's staff | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with staff=Instrument |
| 3 | **find** | to-infinitive |  | the safest place |  | place's rocky bed |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Topic |
| 4 | **make** | might | mother | the first step |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent step=Product |

<!-- .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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