---
title: But while the vessel flew faster and faster towards Crete, Theseus w… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But while the vessel flew faster and faster towards Crete, Theseus was astonished to behold a human figure, gigantic in size, which appeared to be striding, with a measured movement, along the margin of the island. Who acts: vessel, Theseus, size. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawtho
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 3, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But while the vessel flew faster and faster towards Crete, Theseus was astonished to behold a human figure, gigantic in size, which appeared to be striding, with a measured movement, along the margin of the island.

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**Who acts:** vessel, Theseus, size · **What happens:** fly, be, behold, appear, stride, measure · **To what, where:** human figure, margin

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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 (vessel, Theseus, size), 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:pg976:5:26
# text = But while the vessel flew faster and faster towards Crete, Theseus was astonished to behold a human figure, gigantic in size, which appeared to be striding, with a measured movement, along the margin of the island.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
6	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	conj	_	_
9	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Crete	Crete	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
12	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	astonished	astonished	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	behold	behold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	gigantic	gigantic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux	_	_
29	striding	stride	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	measured	measure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	amod	_	_
34	movement	movement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	along	along	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	margin	margin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | the vessel |  |  |  |  | towards Crete; fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards crete=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | past | Theseus |  |  |  |  | astonished *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **behold** | to-infinitive | Theseus *not said here* | a human figure |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer figure=Stimulus |
| 4 | **appear** | past | size |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **stride** | to-infinitive · progressive | size *not said here* |  |  | the margin of the island |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along margin=Trajectory |
| 6 | **measure** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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