---
title: It stepped from cliff to cliff, and sometimes from one headland to a… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It stepped from cliff to cliff, and sometimes from one headland to another, while the sea foamed and thundered on the shore beneath, and dashed its jets of spray over the giant's feet. Who acts: vessel, sea. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 3, with its dep
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 3, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It stepped from cliff to cliff, and sometimes from one headland to another, while the sea foamed and thundered on the shore beneath, and dashed its jets of spray over the giant's feet.

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**Who acts:** vessel, sea · **What happens:** step, foam, thunder, dash · **To what, where:** cliff, shore, jets, feet

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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, sea), 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:pg976:5:27
# text = It stepped from cliff to cliff, and sometimes from one headland to another, while the sea foamed and thundered on the shore beneath, and dashed its jets of spray over the giant's feet.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	from	from	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	12	advmod	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	headland	headland	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	foamed	foam	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	thundered	thunder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	beneath	beneath	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	dashed	dash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
29	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	jets	jet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	spray	spray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	over	over	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	's	's	PART	POS	_	35	case	_	_
37	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **step** | past | vessel |  |  | cliff |  | to cliff | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to cliff=Destination |
| 2 | **foam** | past | the sea |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_modes\_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **thunder** | past | the sea *not said here* |  |  | the shore |  | beneath *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on shore=Location |
| 4 | **dash** | past | vessel *not said here* | vessel's jets of spray |  | the giant's feet |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent jet=Theme over foot=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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