---
title: Advancing to the foot of the throne, he attempted to make a little s… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Advancing to the foot of the throne, he attempted to make a little speech, which he had been thinking about, as he came up the stairs. Who acts: Theseus, little speech. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 2, sentence 20

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Advancing to the foot of the throne, he attempted to make a little speech, which he had been thinking about, as he came up the stairs.

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**Who acts:** Theseus, little speech · **What happens:** advance, attempt, make, think about, come up · **To what, where:** foot, little speech, stairs

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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 (Theseus, little speech), 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:pg976:4:20
# text = Advancing to the foot of the throne, he attempted to make a little speech, which he had been thinking about, as he came up the stairs.
1	Advancing	advance	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	throne	throne	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	attempted	attempt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	aux	_	_
21	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	conj	_	_
22	about	about	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
27	up	up	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **advance** | gerund | Theseus *not said here* |  |  | the foot of the throne |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to foot=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **attempt** | past | Theseus |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **make** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Theseus *not said here* | a little speech |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset speech=Product |
| 4 | **think about** *speech: other* | past · perfect · progressive | a little speech |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **come up** | past | Theseus | the stairs |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location stair=Theme |

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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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