---
title: It was at some distance, however, and he really could not tell wheth… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was at some distance, however, and he really could not tell whether it sounded most like a bull's roar or a man's harsh voice. Who acts: breath, Theseus, bull. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/4/)

<!-- 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/) / 4

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was at some distance, however, and he really could not tell whether it sounded most like a bull's roar or a man's harsh voice.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** breath, Theseus, bull · **What happens:** be, not tell, sound, roar · **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 (breath, Theseus, bull), 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:pg976:6:4
# text = It was at some distance, however, and he really could not tell whether it sounded most like a bull's roar or a man's harsh voice.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
7	however	however	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	really	really	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
15	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
18	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	17	advmod	_	_
19	like	like	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	's	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	roar	roar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	's	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	harsh	harsh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | breath |  |  |  |  | at some distance | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | Theseus |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **sound** | past | breath |  |  |  |  | like a bull's roar or a man's harsh voice | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **roar** |  | a bull |  |  |  |  |  | nom roar «event intransitive»: 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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/5/)
- ↑ back to [The Minotaur., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/6/)