---
title: In a few moments, she heard a great noise of hissing snakes outside… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In a few moments, she heard a great noise of hissing snakes outside of the chamber window; and behold! there was her fiery chariot, and four huge winged serpents, wriggling and twisting in the air, flourishing their tails higher than the top of the palace, and all ready to set off on an aerial journ
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 2, sentence 64

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In a few moments, she heard a great noise of hissing snakes outside of the chamber window; and behold! there was her fiery chariot, and four huge winged serpents, wriggling and twisting in the air, flourishing their tails higher than the top of the palace, and all ready to set off on an aerial journey.

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**Who acts:** Medea, great noise, hissing snakes · **What happens:** hear, be, wing, wriggle, twist, flourish · **To what, where:** great noise, fiery chariot, air, aerial journey

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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 (Medea, great noise, hissing snakes), 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:pg976:4:64
# text = In a few moments, she heard a great noise of hissing snakes outside of the chamber window; and behold! there was her fiery chariot, and four huge winged serpents, wriggling and twisting in the air, flourishing their tails higher than the top of the palace, and all ready to set off on an aerial journey.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	moments	moment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	hissing	hissing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
14	outside	outside	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	chamber	chamber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	24	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
23	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	24	expl	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	fiery	fiery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	chariot	chariot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
30	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
31	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	winged	wing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	amod	_	_
33	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	wriggling	wriggle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	twisting	twist	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	conj	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
42	flourishing	flourish	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	conj	_	_
43	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	nsubj	_	_
45	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	42	ccomp	_	_
46	than	than	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
49	of	of	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
54	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	55	advmod	_	_
55	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
56	to	to	PART	TO	_	57	mark	_	_
57	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	xcomp	_	_
58	off	off	ADP	RP	_	57	compound:prt	_	_
59	on	on	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
60	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
61	aerial	aerial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	62	amod	_	_
62	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Medea | a great noise of hissing snakes outside the chamber window |  |  | moment |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer noise=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | Medea's fiery chariot and four huge winged serpents |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **wing** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **wriggle** | gerund | Medea *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **twist** | gerund | Medea *not said here* |  |  | the air |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme in air=Trajectory |
| 6 | **flourish** | gerund | Medea *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **set off** | to-infinitive | a great noise of hissing snakes outside the chamber window *not said here* |  |  | a aerial journey |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **noise** |  | hissing snakes outside the chamber window |  |  |  |  |  | nom noise «event intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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