---
title: "Cut me off!" said the branch, as soon as it could speak distinctly;… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Cut me off!" said the branch, as soon as it could speak distinctly; "cut me off! cut me off! and carve me into a figure-head for your galley." Who acts: you, branch, foliage. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 2, sentence 82

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"Cut me off!" said the branch, as soon as it could speak distinctly; "cut me off! cut me off! and carve me into a figure-head for your galley."

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**Who acts:** you, branch, foliage · **What happens:** cut off, say, speak, carve · **To what, where:** branch, Jason, figure head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you, branch, foliage), 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:pg976:26:82
# text = "Cut me off!" said the branch, as soon as it could speak distinctly; "cut me off! cut me off! and carve me into a figure-head for your galley."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Cut	cut	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	off	off	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	as	as	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
17	distinctly	distinctly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	off	off	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
24	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	off	off	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	carve	carve	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
33	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	galley	galley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut off** *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* | the branch *= branch* |  |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the branch |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | foliage |  |  |  |  | distinctly *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **cut off** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* | Jason |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector i=Eventuality |
| 5 | **cut off** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  | Jason |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector i=Eventuality |
| 6 | **carve** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* | Jason |  | a figure head for your galley |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent i=Material into head=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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