---
title: But, had the noble Theseus heard these falsehoods, he would have ser… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But, had the noble Theseus heard these falsehoods, he would have served their slanderous authors as he served the Minotaur! Who acts: noble Theseus, Theseus. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 4, sentence 67

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But, had the noble Theseus heard these falsehoods, he would have served their slanderous authors as he served the Minotaur!

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**Who acts:** noble Theseus, Theseus · **What happens:** have, hear, serve · **To what, where:** falsehoods, Theseus, Minotaur

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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 (noble Theseus, Theseus), 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:pg976:6:67
# text = But, had the noble Theseus heard these falsehoods, he would have served their slanderous authors as he served the Minotaur!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	noble	noble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
8	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	falsehoods	falsehood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
14	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	slanderous	slanderous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	authors	author	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	served	serve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Minotaur	Minotaur	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | past | the noble Theseus | this falsehoods |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer falsehood=Stimulus |
| 3 | **serve** | would · perfect · passive |  | Theseus |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **serve** | past | Theseus | the Minotaur |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent minotaur=Attribute |

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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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