---
title: And there he was, the wretched thing, with no society, no companion,… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And there he was, the wretched thing, with no society, no companion, no kind of a mate, living only to do mischief, and incapable of knowing what affection means. Who acts: Theseus, incapable. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 4, with its dependency tree an
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 4, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And there he was, the wretched thing, with no society, no companion, no kind of a mate, living only to do mischief, and incapable of knowing what affection means.

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**Who acts:** Theseus, incapable · **What happens:** be, live, do, know, mean · **To what, where:** wretched thing, mischief, affection

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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 (Theseus, incapable), 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:pg976:6:24
# text = And there he was, the wretched thing, with no society, no companion, no kind of a mate, living only to do mischief, and incapable of knowing what affection means.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	12	det	_	_
12	society	society	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
15	companion	companion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	living	live	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
24	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
27	mischief	mischief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	incapable	incapable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	acl	_	_
33	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	34	det	_	_
34	affection	affection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Theseus | the wretched thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **live** | gerund | Theseus *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | Theseus *not said here* | mischief |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mischief=Eventuality |
| 4 | **know** | gerund | incapable *not said here* | what affection |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer affection=Stimulus |
| 5 | **mean** | present | incapable | the wretched thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |

<!-- .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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