---
title: If it did not smash him all to pieces, at least, I am sure, it must… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: If it did not smash him all to pieces, at least, I am sure, it must have made the poor little fellow's head ache. Who acts: woodcutter, I, poor little fellow. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 14

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If it did not smash him all to pieces, at least, I am sure, it must have made the poor little fellow's head ache.

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**Who acts:** woodcutter, I, poor little fellow · **What happens:** not smash, be, make, ache · **To what, where:** man, least, woodcutter

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woodcutter, I, poor little fellow), 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:pg976:7:14
# text = If it did not smash him all to pieces, at least, I am sure, it must have made the poor little fellow's head ache.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	smash	smash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	_
21	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	ccomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	ache	ache	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **smash** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · do-support | woodcutter | man |  | least |  | to pieces | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent he=Theme to piece=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** | must · perfect · passive |  | woodcutter |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary ache=Product |
| 4 | **ache** |  | the poor little fellow |  |  |  |  |  | nom ache «state intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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