---
title: There can be nothing else so intricate, unless it were the brain of… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There can be nothing else so intricate, unless it were the brain of a man like Daedalus, who planned it, or the heart of any ordinary man; which last, to be sure, is ten times as great a mystery as the labyrinth of Crete. Who acts: nothing, mizmaze, brain. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathani
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/12/)

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 4, sentence 12

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There can be nothing else so intricate, unless it were the brain of a man like Daedalus, who planned it, or the heart of any ordinary man; which last, to be sure, is ten times as great a mystery as the labyrinth of Crete.

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**Who acts:** nothing, mizmaze, brain · **What happens:** be, plan · **To what, where:** brain, mizmaze, ten times

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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 (nothing, mizmaze, brain), 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:pg976:6:12
# text = There can be nothing else so intricate, unless it were the brain of a man like Daedalus, who planned it, or the heart of any ordinary man; which last, to be sure, is ten times as great a mystery as the labyrinth of Crete.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	nsubj	_	_
5	else	else	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	intricate	intricate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	brain	brain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	like	like	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Daedalus	Daedalus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	planned	plan	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	parataxis	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	det	_	_
29	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
32	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	37	ccomp	_	_
33	last	last	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
36	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	cop	_	_
37	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
40	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	41	nummod	_	_
41	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obl:unmarked	_	_
42	as	as	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	mystery	mystery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	ccomp	_	_
46	as	as	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	labyrinth	labyrinth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	_
49	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	Crete	Crete	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	48	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **can** | can | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | mizmaze | the brain |  |  |  | of a man like Daedalus | tree rules |
| 3 | **plan** | past | the brain | mizmaze |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | last, sure *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | present |  | ten times |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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