---
title: "But how shall I ever find him," asked Theseus, "if the labyrinth so… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "But how shall I ever find him," asked Theseus, "if the labyrinth so bewilders me as you say it will?" Who acts: I, labyrinth, Theseus. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 4, sentence 1

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"But how shall I ever find him," asked Theseus, "if the labyrinth so bewilders me as you say it will?"

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**Who acts:** I, labyrinth, Theseus · **What happens:** find, ask, bewilder, say · **To what, where:** him, Theseus, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, labyrinth, 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:pg976:6:1
# text = "But how shall I ever find him," asked Theseus, "if the labyrinth so bewilders me as you say it will?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
3	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
4	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	7	advmod	_	_
7	find	find	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	labyrinth	labyrinth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	bewilders	bewilder	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** *in a quote* | shall | I | him *= he* |  |  | ever |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | Theseus |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent theseus=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **bewilder** *in a quote* | present | the labyrinth | me |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus i=Experiencer |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | Theseus |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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