---
title: Theseus could only guess what the creature intended to say, and that… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Theseus could only guess what the creature intended to say, and that rather by his gestures than his words; for the Minotaur's horns were sharper than his wits, and of a great deal more service to him than his tongue. Who acts: Theseus, creature. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthor
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/37/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Tanglewood Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/) / [The Minotaur., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/) / 37

# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 4, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Theseus could only guess what the creature intended to say, and that rather by his gestures than his words; for the Minotaur's horns were sharper than his wits, and of a great deal more service to him than his tongue.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Theseus, creature · **What happens:** guess, intend, say, be, gesture, word · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, creature), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg976:6:37
# text = Theseus could only guess what the creature intended to say, and that rather by his gestures than his words; for the Minotaur's horns were sharper than his wits, and of a great deal more service to him than his tongue.
1	Theseus	theseus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	intended	intend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
14	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	gestures	gesture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	than	than	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Minotaur	Minotaur	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	sharper	sharp	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	advcl	_	_
29	than	than	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	wits	wit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
38	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	39	advmod	_	_
39	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	_
40	to	to	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nmod	_	_
42	than	than	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guess** | could | Theseus |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **intend** | past | the creature |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the creature *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | Theseus *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the Minotaur's horns; than Minotaur's wits; sharp *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **gesture** |  | Theseus |  |  |  |  | than Theseus's words | nom gesture «act intransitive»: poss=agent than=obl |
| 6 | **word** |  | Theseus |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/36/)
- next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/38/)
- ↑ back to [The Minotaur., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/)