---
title: His aspect was stately and majestic, although his years and infirmit… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: His aspect was stately and majestic, although his years and infirmities weighed heavily upon him, as if each year were a lump of lead, and each infirmity a ponderous stone, and all were bundled up together, and laid upon his weary shoulders. Who acts: aspect, years, year, infirmity. A sentence of «T
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 2, sentence 15

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His aspect was stately and majestic, although his years and infirmities weighed heavily upon him, as if each year were a lump of lead, and each infirmity a ponderous stone, and all were bundled up together, and laid upon his weary shoulders.

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**Who acts:** aspect, years, year, infirmity · **What happens:** be, weigh, stone, bundle up, lay · **To what, where:** lump, all, weary shoulders

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (aspect, years, year, infirmity), 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:pg976:4:15
# text = His aspect was stately and majestic, although his years and infirmities weighed heavily upon him, as if each year were a lump of lead, and each infirmity a ponderous stone, and all were bundled up together, and laid upon his weary shoulders.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	aspect	aspect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	stately	stately	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	majestic	majestic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	infirmities	infirmity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	_
13	weighed	weigh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
14	heavily	heavily	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
20	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	det	_	_
21	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	lump	lump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	lead	lead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
29	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	30	det	_	_
30	infirmity	infirmity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	ponderous	ponderous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
37	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux:pass	_	_
38	bundled	bundle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
39	up	up	ADP	RP	_	38	compound:prt	_	_
40	together	together	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
44	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
45	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	47	nmod:poss	_	_
46	weary	weary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Theseus's aspect |  |  |  |  | majestic, stately *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **weigh** | past | Theseus's years and infirmities |  |  |  |  | upon Theseus; heavily *property* | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | each year | a lump |  |  |  | of lead | tree rules |
| 4 | **stone** |  | each infirmity |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **bundle up** | past · passive |  | all |  |  |  | together *property* | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 6 | **lay** | past | Theseus's years and infirmities *not said here* |  |  | Theseus's weary shoulders |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent upon shoulder=Destination |

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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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