---
title: And he whirled his club aloft more threateningly than ever, as if he… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And he whirled his club aloft more threateningly than ever, as if he were about to smite them with a thunderstroke right amidships, because Athens, so little while ago, had been at war with Crete. Who acts: errand. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 3, with 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 3, sentence 49

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And he whirled his club aloft more threateningly than ever, as if he were about to smite them with a thunderstroke right amidships, because Athens, so little while ago, had been at war with Crete.

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**Who acts:** errand · **What happens:** whirl, be, smite · **To what, where:** club, men, war

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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 (errand), 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:pg976:5:49
# text = And he whirled his club aloft more threateningly than ever, as if he were about to smite them with a thunderstroke right amidships, because Athens, so little while ago, had been at war with Crete.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	whirled	whirl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	club	club	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	aloft	aloft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	obj	_	_
8	threateningly	threateningly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	smite	smite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	thunderstroke	thunderstroke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	amidships	amidship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	27	case	_	_
27	Athens	Athens	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
31	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
32	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
35	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	37	cop	_	_
36	at	at	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
38	with	with	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	Crete	Crete	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whirl** | past | errand | errand's club |  |  |  | because Athens | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP ADJ.result»: agent=Agent club=Theme more=Result |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | errand |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **smite** | to-infinitive | errand *not said here* | men *= man* |  |  |  | with right amidships | vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Patient with amidship=Instrument |
| 4 | **is** | past · perfect |  |  |  | war |  | with Crete | tree rules |

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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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