---
title: By and by, Jason imagined that he could distinguish words, but very… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: By and by, Jason imagined that he could distinguish words, but very confusedly, because each separate leaf of the tree seemed to be a tongue, and the whole myriad of tongues were babbling at once. Who acts: sound, separate leaf, whole myriad. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 2, sentence 68

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By and by, Jason imagined that he could distinguish words, but very confusedly, because each separate leaf of the tree seemed to be a tongue, and the whole myriad of tongues were babbling at once.

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**Who acts:** sound, separate leaf, whole myriad · **What happens:** imagine, distinguish, seem, be, babble · **To what, where:** words, tongue

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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 (sound, separate leaf, whole myriad), 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:pg976:26:68
# text = By and by, Jason imagined that he could distinguish words, but very confusedly, because each separate leaf of the tree seemed to be a tongue, and the whole myriad of tongues were babbling at once.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	by	by	ADP	IN	_	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	Jason	Jason	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
6	imagined	imagine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
11	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	confusedly	confusedly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
17	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
18	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	det	_	_
19	separate	separate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	myriad	myriad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	tongues	tongue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	_
36	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	babbling	babble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	xcomp	_	_
38	at	at	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **imagine** | past |  |  |  |  |  | by Jason | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **distinguish** | could | sound | words |  |  |  |  | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Attribute word=Theme |
| 3 | **seem** | past | each separate leaf of the tree |  |  |  |  | confusedly *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive | each separate leaf of the tree *not said here* | a tongue |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **babble** | past · progressive | the whole myriad of tongues |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at once=Location |

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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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