---
title: The great sow had been an awful beast, while ramping about the woods… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The great sow had been an awful beast, while ramping about the woods and fields, but was a pleasant object enough when cut up into joints, and smoking on I know not how many dinner tables. Who acts: great sow, I. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 1, with it
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 1, sentence 84

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The great sow had been an awful beast, while ramping about the woods and fields, but was a pleasant object enough when cut up into joints, and smoking on I know not how many dinner tables.

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**Who acts:** great sow, I · **What happens:** be, ramp, cut up, smoke, not know · **To what, where:** awful beast, pleasant object, many dinner tables

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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 (great sow, I), 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:pg976:3:84
# text = The great sow had been an awful beast, while ramping about the woods and fields, but was a pleasant object enough when cut up into joints, and smoking on I know not how many dinner tables.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	sow	sow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	awful	awful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	ramping	ramp	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	woods	wood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	fields	field	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	object	object	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
23	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
25	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	into	into	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	joints	joint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	smoking	smoke	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
32	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	_
35	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
36	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	37	advmod	_	_
37	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
38	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	_
39	tables	table	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past · perfect | the great sow | a awful beast |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ramp** | gerund | the great sow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the woods and fields | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | a pleasant object |  |  |  | enough *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **cut up** | participle | the great sow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into joints | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent into joint=Patient |
| 5 | **smoke** | gerund | the great sow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **not** **know** | present | I | many dinner tables |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer table=Stimulus |

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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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