---
title: But when Theseus heard of robbers and monsters, he pricked up his ea… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But when Theseus heard of robbers and monsters, he pricked up his ears, and was so much the more eager to take the road along which they were to be met with. Who acts: Theseus. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 1, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when Theseus heard of robbers and monsters, he pricked up his ears, and was so much the more eager to take the road along which they were to be met with.

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**Who acts:** Theseus · **What happens:** hear, prick up, be, take, meet · **To what, where:** ears, road, roads

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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 (Theseus), 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:pg976:3:72
# text = But when Theseus heard of robbers and monsters, he pricked up his ears, and was so much the more eager to take the road along which they were to be met with.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	monsters	monster	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	pricked	prick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
19	much	much	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	22	advmod	_	_
22	eager	eager	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	along	along	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	obl	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	met	meet	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	acl:relcl	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Theseus |  |  |  |  | of robbers and monsters | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of robber=Stimulus |
| 2 | **prick up** | past | Theseus | Theseus's ears |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ear=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | Theseus *not said here* |  |  |  |  | eager *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **take** | to-infinitive | Theseus *not said here* | the road |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent road=Theme |
| 5 | **meet** | past · passive | Theseus *not said here* | roads *= road* |  |  |  | along the road | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-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.

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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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