---
title: And though it was a sad business enough, I rather question whether f… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And though it was a sad business enough, I rather question whether fourteen young people, without any old persons to keep them in order, could continue to spend the whole time of the voyage in being miserable. Who acts: breeze, I. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 3, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And though it was a sad business enough, I rather question whether fourteen young people, without any old persons to keep them in order, could continue to spend the whole time of the voyage in being miserable.

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**Who acts:** breeze, I · **What happens:** be, question, keep, continue, spend · **To what, where:** sad business, mariners, order

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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 (breeze, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg976:5:17
# text = And though it was a sad business enough, I rather question whether fourteen young people, without any old persons to keep them in order, could continue to spend the whole time of the voyage in being miserable.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	advcl	_	_
8	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	question	question	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	fourteen	fourteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
15	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	without	without	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	persons	person	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	continue	continue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	spend	spend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	voyage	voyage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	40	cop	_	_
40	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | breeze | a sad business |  |  |  | enough *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **question** *speech: other* | present | I |  |  |  |  | without any old persons | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **keep** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | mariners *= mariner* |  | order |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme in order=Location |
| 4 | **continue** | could | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **spend** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | miserable *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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