---
title: But just when Theseus and his companions thought the blow was coming… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But just when Theseus and his companions thought the blow was coming, the brazen lips unclosed themselves, and the figure spoke. Who acts: Theseus, blow, brazen lips, figure. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 3, sentence 44

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But just when Theseus and his companions thought the blow was coming, the brazen lips unclosed themselves, and the figure spoke.

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**Who acts:** Theseus, blow, brazen lips, figure · **What happens:** think, come, unclos, speak · **To what, where:** brazen lips, lips · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, blow, brazen lips, figure), 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:pg976:5:44
# text = But just when Theseus and his companions thought the blow was coming, the brazen lips unclosed themselves, and the figure spoke.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	just	just	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
4	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	companions	companion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
8	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	brazen	brazen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
17	unclosed	unclos	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
18	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Theseus and Theseus's companions |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past · progressive | the blow | the brazen lips |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **unclos** | participle | the brazen lips *not said here* | lips *= lip* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the figure |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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