---
title: Once or twice, he fancied that he saw a glare of some bright object,… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once or twice, he fancied that he saw a glare of some bright object, a long way off, flinging a gleam across the waves. Who acts: Theseus. 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 21

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Once or twice, he fancied that he saw a glare of some bright object, a long way off, flinging a gleam across the waves.

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**Who acts:** Theseus · **What happens:** fancy, see, fling · **To what, where:** glare, gleam, waves

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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 (Theseus), 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:pg976:5:21
# text = Once or twice, he fancied that he saw a glare of some bright object, a long way off, flinging a gleam across the waves.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	fancied	fancy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	glare	glare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
14	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	object	object	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	_
20	off	off	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	flinging	fling	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	gleam	gleam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	across	across	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fancy** | past | Theseus |  |  |  |  | once *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | past | Theseus | a glare of some bright object |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer glare=Stimulus |
| 3 | **fling** | gerund | Theseus *not said here* | a gleam |  | the waves |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gleam=Theme |

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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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