---
title: They say, too, that Prince Theseus (who would have died sooner than… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They say, too, that Prince Theseus (who would have died sooner than wrong the meanest creature in the world) ungratefully deserted Ariadne, on a solitary island, where the vessel touched on its voyage to Athens. Who acts: people, Prince Theseus, vessel. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel 
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 4, sentence 66

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They say, too, that Prince Theseus (who would have died sooner than wrong the meanest creature in the world) ungratefully deserted Ariadne, on a solitary island, where the vessel touched on its voyage to Athens.

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**Who acts:** people, Prince Theseus, vessel · **What happens:** say, die, desert, touch, voyage · **To what, where:** Ariadne, solitary island, vessel, voyage · **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 (people, Prince Theseus, vessel), 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:pg976:6:66
# text = They say, too, that Prince Theseus (who would have died sooner than wrong the meanest creature in the world) ungratefully deserted Ariadne, on a solitary island, where the vessel touched on its voyage to Athens.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
7	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
9	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
13	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
14	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	25	advmod	_	_
15	than	than	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	meanest	mean	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	19	amod	_	_
19	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	14	punct	_	_
24	ungratefully	ungratefully	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	deserted	desert	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
26	Ariadne	Ariadne	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	solitary	solitary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	35	advmod	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
36	touched	touch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	acl	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	voyage	voyage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
40	to	to	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	Athens	Athens	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **die** | would · perfect | Prince Theseus |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **desert** | past | people *not said here* | Ariadne |  | a solitary island and the vessel |  | soon, ungratefully *property* | vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme ariadne=Source |
| 4 | **touch** | participle |  | the vessel *not said here* |  | vessel's voyage to Athens |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **voyage** |  | vessel |  |  |  |  | to Athens | nom voyage «act transitive»: poss=agent to=obl |

<!-- .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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