---
title: Were we to take but a few steps from the doorway, we might wander ab… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Were we to take but a few steps from the doorway, we might wander about all our lifetime, and never find it again. Who acts: we. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 3, sentence 107

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Were we to take but a few steps from the doorway, we might wander about all our lifetime, and never find it again.

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** take, wander, not find · **To what, where:** few steps, doorway, lifetime

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we), 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:pg976:5:107
# text = Were we to take but a few steps from the doorway, we might wander about all our lifetime, and never find it again.
1	Were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	doorway	doorway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	wander	wander	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
16	about	about	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	19	det:predet	_	_
18	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	lifetime	lifetime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	again	again	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | we | a few steps |  | the doorway |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent step=Theme from doorway=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **wander** | might | we |  |  |  |  | about our lifetime | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about lifetime=Trajectory |
| 3 | **not** **find** | infinitive | we *not said here* | lifetime |  |  | again |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

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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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