---
title: The rowers plied their fifty oars; the white foam boiled up before t… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The rowers plied their fifty oars; the white foam boiled up before the prow; the water gurgled and bubbled in their wake; while Orpheus continued to play so lively a strain of music, that the vessel seemed to dance over the billows by way of keeping time to it. Who acts: rowers, Orpheus, vessel, way
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/27/26/)

<!-- 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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/27/) / 26

# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 3, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The rowers plied their fifty oars; the white foam boiled up before the prow; the water gurgled and bubbled in their wake; while Orpheus continued to play so lively a strain of music, that the vessel seemed to dance over the billows by way of keeping time to it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** rowers, Orpheus, vessel, way, music · **What happens:** ply, boil up, gurgle, bubble, continue, play · **To what, where:** fifty oars, white foam, water, wake, strain, billows

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rowers, Orpheus, vessel, way), 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:pg976:27:26
# text = The rowers plied their fifty oars; the white foam boiled up before the prow; the water gurgled and bubbled in their wake; while Orpheus continued to play so lively a strain of music, that the vessel seemed to dance over the billows by way of keeping time to it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	rowers	rower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	plied	ply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	oars	oar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	foam	foam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
11	boiled	boil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
12	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	before	before	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	prow	prow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
19	gurgled	gurgle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	bubbled	bubble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	wake	wake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	Orpheus	Orpheus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	lively	lively	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	strain	strain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	music	music	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
41	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
44	over	over	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	billows	billow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obl	_	_
47	by	by	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	_
49	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
50	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	48	acl	_	_
51	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obj	_	_
52	to	to	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ply** | past | the rowers | rowers's fifty oars |  |  |  |  | vn equip-13.4.2 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP»: agent=Agent oar=Recipient |
| 2 | **boil up** | participle |  | the white foam and the water *not said here* |  |  | before the prow |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **gurgle** | participle |  | the water *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **bubble** | participle |  |  |  | oars's wake |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in wake=Location |
| 5 | **continue** | past | Orpheus |  |  |  |  |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **play** | to-infinitive | Orpheus *not said here* | a strain of music |  |  |  | lively *property* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent strain=Theme |
| 7 | **seem** | past | the vessel |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 8 | **dance** | to-infinitive | the vessel *not said here* |  |  | the billows |  | by way | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over billow=Location |
| 9 | **keep** | gerund | way *not said here* |  | prow |  | time |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 10 | **strain** |  | music |  |  |  |  |  | nom strain «phenomenon intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/27/25/)
- next →: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/27/27/)
- ↑ back to [The Golden Fleece., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/27/)