---
title: Little children, not quite understanding what is said to them, often… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Little children, not quite understanding what is said to them, often get such absurd notions into their heads, you know. Who acts: Little children, you. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/25/9/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Tanglewood Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/) / [The Golden Fleece., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/25/) / 9

# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 1, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Little children, not quite understanding what is said to them, often get such absurd notions into their heads, you know.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Little children, you · **What happens:** not understand, say, get, know · **To what, where:** children, such absurd notions, heads · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Little children, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg976:25:9
# text = Little children, not quite understanding what is said to them, often get such absurd notions into their heads, you know.
1	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	understanding	understand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	often	often	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	get	get	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
15	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	absurd	absurd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	notions	notion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **understand** | gerund | Little children |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present · passive |  |  | children *= child* |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to they=Recipient |
| 3 | **get** | present | Little children *not said here* | such absurd notions |  | children's heads |  | often *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer notion=Stimulus |
| 4 | **know** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/25/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/25/10/)
- ↑ back to [The Golden Fleece., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/25/)