--- title: His grandfather, King Pittheus, was the sovereign of that country, a… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics description: His grandfather, King Pittheus, was the sovereign of that country, and was reckoned a very wise man; so that Theseus, being brought up in the royal palace, and being naturally a bright lad, could hardly fail of profiting by the old king's instructions. Who acts: grandfather, bright lad, old king. A --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/3/2/) [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 Minotaur., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/3/) / 2 # Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 1, sentence 2 His grandfather, King Pittheus, was the sovereign of that country, and was reckoned a very wise man; so that Theseus, being brought up in the royal palace, and being naturally a bright lad, could hardly fail of profiting by the old king's instructions. **Who acts:** grandfather, bright lad, old king · **What happens:** be, reckon, bring up, fail, profit, instruct · **To what, where:** sovereign, wise man, royal palace, bright lad This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grandfather, bright lad, old king), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg976:3:2 # text = His grandfather, King Pittheus, was the sovereign of that country, and was reckoned a very wise man; so that Theseus, being brought up in the royal palace, and being naturally a bright lad, could hardly fail of profiting by the old king's instructions. 1 His his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 2 nmod:poss _ _ 2 grandfather grandfather NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 3 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ _ 4 King King PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 appos _ _ 5 Pittheus Pittheus PROPN NNP Number=Sing 4 flat _ SpaceAfter=No 6 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ _ 7 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 cop _ _ 8 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 9 sovereign sovereign NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 10 of of ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 11 that that DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 12 det _ _ 12 country country NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 13 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 14 and and CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 15 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 16 aux:pass _ _ 16 reckoned reckon VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 9 parataxis _ _ 17 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 18 very very ADV RB _ 19 advmod _ _ 19 wise wise ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 20 amod _ _ 20 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 21 ; ; PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 22 so so SCONJ IN _ 24 case _ _ 23 that that SCONJ IN _ 22 fixed _ _ 24 Theseus Theseus PROPN NNP Number=Sing 16 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 26 being be AUX VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 27 aux:pass _ _ 27 brought bring VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 16 conj _ _ 28 up up ADP RP _ 27 compound:prt _ _ 29 in in ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 30 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 32 det _ _ 31 royal royal ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 32 amod _ _ 32 palace palace NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 33 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 34 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 35 being be AUX VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 39 cop _ _ 36 naturally naturally ADV RB _ 39 advmod _ _ 37 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 39 det _ _ 38 bright bright ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 amod _ _ 39 lad lad NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 40 , , PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ _ 41 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 43 aux _ _ 42 hardly hardly ADV RB _ 43 advmod _ _ 43 fail fail VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 39 acl:relcl _ _ 44 of of SCONJ IN _ 45 mark _ _ 45 profiting profit VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 43 advcl _ _ 46 by by ADP IN _ 51 case _ _ 47 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 49 det _ _ 48 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 49 amod _ _ 49 king king NOUN NN Number=Sing 51 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 50 's 's PART POS _ 49 case _ _ 51 instructions instruction NOUN NNS Number=Plur 45 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 52 . . PUNCT . _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is a** | past | boy's grandfather | the sovereign and a bright lad | | | | of that country | tree rules | | 2 | **reckon** | past · passive | | a wise man | | | | so Theseus | vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: man=Attribute | | 3 | **bring up** | gerund · passive | | | | the royal palace | | | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient» | | 4 | **is a** | gerund | boy's grandfather *not said here* | a bright lad | | | | naturally *property* | tree rules | | 5 | **fail** | could | a bright lad *not said here* | | | | | hardly *property* | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **profit** | gerund | a bright lad *not said here* | | | | | by the old king's instructions | vn benefit-72.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Beneficiary by instruction=Causer | | 7 | **instruct** | | the old king | | | | | | nom instruction «communication transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/3/1/) - next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/3/3/) - ↑ back to [The Minotaur., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/3/)