---
title: And he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand, as if he w… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand, as if he were half a mind to slay Jason, instead of the black bull. Who acts: Jason. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/26/21/)

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 2, sentence 21

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And he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand, as if he were half a mind to slay Jason, instead of the black bull.

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**Who acts:** Jason · **What happens:** clutch, be, slay · **To what, where:** great knife, hand, mind, Jason

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jason), 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:pg976:26:21
# text = And he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand, as if he were half a mind to slay Jason, instead of the black bull.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	clutched	clutch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
5	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	19	det:predet	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl	_	_
22	Jason	Jason	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	28	case	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	fixed	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clutch** | past | Jason | the great knife |  | Jason's hand |  | closely *property* | vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Jason | half mind |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **slay** | to-infinitive | Jason *not said here* | Jason |  |  |  | instead the black bull | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent jason=Patient |

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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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