---
title: There had been some few dances upon the undulating deck, I suspect,… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There had been some few dances upon the undulating deck, I suspect, and some hearty bursts of laughter, and other such unseasonable merriment among the victims, before the high blue mountains of Crete began to show themselves among the far-off clouds. Who acts: I, high blue mountains. A sentence of 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 3, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There had been some few dances upon the undulating deck, I suspect, and some hearty bursts of laughter, and other such unseasonable merriment among the victims, before the high blue mountains of Crete began to show themselves among the far-off clouds.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, high blue mountains · **What happens:** have, be, undulate, suspect, begin, show · **To what, where:** hearty bursts, few dances, mountains, laughter

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, high blue mountains), 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:pg976:5:18
# text = There had been some few dances upon the undulating deck, I suspect, and some hearty bursts of laughter, and other such unseasonable merriment among the victims, before the high blue mountains of Crete began to show themselves among the far-off clouds.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
5	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	dances	dance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
7	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	undulating	undulate	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	amod	_	_
10	deck	deck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	suspect	suspect	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
17	hearty	hearty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	bursts	burst	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
24	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	unseasonable	unseasonable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	merriment	merriment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
27	among	among	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	victims	victim	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	before	before	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
33	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	Crete	Crete	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	_
38	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	xcomp	_	_
41	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	40	obj	_	_
42	among	among	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
44	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	44	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	off	off	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	compound	_	_
47	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  | some hearty bursts of laughter |  | there |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | participle |  | some few dances |  |  |  | upon the undulating deck | tree rules |
| 3 | **undulate** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **suspect** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **begin** | past | the high blue mountains of Crete |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **show** | to-infinitive | the high blue mountains of Crete *not said here* | mountains *= mountain* |  |  |  | among the off clouds | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent themselves=Recipient |
| 7 | **burst** |  |  | laughter |  |  |  |  | nom burst «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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