---
title: A few years before this time, there had been a war between the city… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A few years before this time, there had been a war between the city of Athens and the island of Crete, in which the Athenians were beaten, and compelled to beg for peace. Who acts: few years. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 2, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 2, sentence 94

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A few years before this time, there had been a war between the city of Athens and the island of Crete, in which the Athenians were beaten, and compelled to beg for peace.

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**Who acts:** few years · **What happens:** be, beat, compel, beg · **To what, where:** war, Athenians

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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 (few years), 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:pg976:4:94
# text = A few years before this time, there had been a war between the city of Athens and the island of Crete, in which the Athenians were beaten, and compelled to beg for peace.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
4	before	before	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
13	between	between	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Athens	Athens	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Crete	Crete	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	Athenians	Athenian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	beaten	beat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	compelled	compel	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	conj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	beg	beg	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	peace	peace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | participle | a few years before this time | a war |  |  |  | between the city of Athens and the island of Crete | tree rules |
| 2 | **beat** | past · passive |  | the Athenians |  |  |  | in a war | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: subject=Patient in which=Topic |
| 3 | **compel** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Result |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | for peace | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for peace=Topic |

<!-- .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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