---
title: Indeed, it had heretofore been a great inconvenience to these poor a… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Indeed, it had heretofore been a great inconvenience to these poor animals, that, whenever they wished to eat a mouthful of grass, the fire out of their nostrils had shriveled it up, before they could manage to crop it. Who acts: nature, streets. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthor
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/29/66/)

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 5, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Indeed, it had heretofore been a great inconvenience to these poor animals, that, whenever they wished to eat a mouthful of grass, the fire out of their nostrils had shriveled it up, before they could manage to crop it.

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**Who acts:** nature, streets · **What happens:** have, be, wish, eat, shrivel up, manage · **To what, where:** great inconvenience, mouthful, that, nature

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nature, streets), 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:pg976:29:66
# text = Indeed, it had heretofore been a great inconvenience to these poor animals, that, whenever they wished to eat a mouthful of grass, the fire out of their nostrils had shriveled it up, before they could manage to crop it.
1	Indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	heretofore	heretofore	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	inconvenience	inconvenience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
12	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	34	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	19	advmod	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	mouthful	mouthful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	out	out	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	nostrils	nostril	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	shriveled	shrivel	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	parataxis	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	_
36	up	up	ADP	RP	_	34	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
39	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	manage	manage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	conj	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	crop	crop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
44	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | nature |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | participle |  | a great inconvenience |  |  |  | to this poor animals; heretofore *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **wish** | past | streets *= street* |  |  |  |  | whenever *property* | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **eat** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | streets *= street* *not said here* | a mouthful of grass |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouthful=Patient |
| 5 | **shrivel up** | past · perfect · passive |  | that |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Patient it=Result |
| 6 | **manage** | could | streets *= street* |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **crop** | to-infinitive | streets *= street* *not said here* | nature |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

<!-- .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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