---
title: But King Aegeus shook his venerable head, and to convince Theseus th… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But King Aegeus shook his venerable head, and to convince Theseus that it was quite a hopeless case, he gave him an explanation of the whole affair. Who acts: King, head, whole affair. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 2, sentence 90

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But King Aegeus shook his venerable head, and to convince Theseus that it was quite a hopeless case, he gave him an explanation of the whole affair.

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**Who acts:** King, head, whole affair · **What happens:** shake, convince, be, give, explain · **To what, where:** venerable head, Theseus, hopeless case, explanation, hand

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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 (King, head, whole affair), 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:pg976:4:90
# text = But King Aegeus shook his venerable head, and to convince Theseus that it was quite a hopeless case, he gave him an explanation of the whole affair.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	Aegeus	Aegeus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	venerable	venerable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	convince	convince	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	Theseus	theseus	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
16	quite	quite	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	19	det:predet	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	hopeless	hopeless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	explanation	explanation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	affair	affair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shake** | past | King | king's venerable head |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **convince** | to-infinitive | King *not said here* | Theseus |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus theseus=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is a** | past | head | quite hopeless case |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | past | king | a explanation of the whole affair | hand |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient explanation=Theme |
| 5 | **explain** |  | the whole affair |  |  |  |  |  | nom explanation «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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