---
title: He was in the habit of flinging his victims off a high cliff into th… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He was in the habit of flinging his victims off a high cliff into the sea; and, in order to give him exactly his deserts, Theseus tossed him off the very same place. Who acts: Scinis, habit, Theseus. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 1, with its dependency 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 1, sentence 81

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He was in the habit of flinging his victims off a high cliff into the sea; and, in order to give him exactly his deserts, Theseus tossed him off the very same place.

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**Who acts:** Scinis, habit, Theseus · **What happens:** be, fling, give, toss · **To what, where:** habit, victims, sea, deserts, Scinis, same place

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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 (Scinis, habit, 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:pg976:3:81
# text = He was in the habit of flinging his victims off a high cliff into the sea; and, in order to give him exactly his deserts, Theseus tossed him off the very same place.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	habit	habit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	flinging	fling	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	victims	victim	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	off	off	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	deserts	desert	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	tossed	toss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	off	off	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
34	very	very	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Scinis |  |  | the habit and order |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fling** | gerund | the habit and order *not said here* | Scinis's victims |  | the sea |  | off a high cliff | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent victim=Theme off cliff=Initial\_Location into sea=Destination |
| 3 | **give** | to-infinitive | Scinis *not said here* | Scinis's deserts | Scinis |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **toss** | past | Theseus | Scinis |  | the same place |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent he=Theme off place=Initial\_Location |

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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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