---
title: To tell your majesty the truth, they look so very strangely that I a… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: To tell your majesty the truth, they look so very strangely that I am inclined to think them clouds, which have chanced to take something like human shapes." Who acts: objects. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 3, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To tell your majesty the truth, they look so very strangely that I am inclined to think them clouds, which have chanced to take something like human shapes."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** objects · **What happens:** tell, look, incline, think, chance, take · **To what, where:** majesty, I, objects, clouds, something · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (objects), 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:pg976:27:42
# text = To tell your majesty the truth, they look so very strangely that I am inclined to think them clouds, which have chanced to take something like human shapes."
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	majesty	majesty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	look	look	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	strangely	strangely	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	inclined	incline	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	chanced	chance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl:relcl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	26	obj	_	_
28	like	like	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	shapes	shape	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  | your majesty |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent majesty=Recipient truth=Topic |
| 2 | **look** | present | objects *= object* |  |  |  |  | strangely *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **incline** | present · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  | objects *= object* |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent they=Theme cloud=Attribute |
| 5 | **chance** | present · perfect · passive |  | clouds |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **take** | to-infinitive |  | something |  |  |  | like human shapes | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Theme |

<!-- .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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