---
title: It took a far-sighted Pygmy, I can assure you, to discern his summit… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It took a far-sighted Pygmy, I can assure you, to discern his summit without the help of a telescope; and sometimes, in misty weather, they could not see his upper half, but only his long legs, which seemed to be striding about by themselves. Who acts: It, I, Pygmies, long legs. A sentence of «Tangl
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It took a far-sighted Pygmy, I can assure you, to discern his summit without the help of a telescope; and sometimes, in misty weather, they could not see his upper half, but only his long legs, which seemed to be striding about by themselves.

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**Who acts:** It, I, Pygmies, long legs · **What happens:** take, sight, assure, discern, not see, seem · **To what, where:** sighted Pygmy, you, summit, upper half, misty weather, telescope

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (It, I, Pygmies, long legs), 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:pg976:7:20
# text = It took a far-sighted Pygmy, I can assure you, to discern his summit without the help of a telescope; and sometimes, in misty weather, they could not see his upper half, but only his long legs, which seemed to be striding about by themselves.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	sighted	sight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	amod	_	_
7	Pygmy	Pygmy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	assure	assure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	discern	discern	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	summit	summit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	without	without	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	telescope	telescope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
26	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	misty	misty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	weather	weather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
33	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
35	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
37	upper	upper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
40	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
41	only	only	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
42	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
43	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	47	nsubj	_	_
47	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
48	to	to	PART	TO	_	50	mark	_	_
49	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	aux	_	_
50	striding	stride	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	47	advcl	_	_
51	about	about	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	_
52	by	by	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | It |  | a sighted Pygmy |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument pygmy=Destination |
| 2 | **sight** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **assure** | can | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 4 | **discern** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | Giant's summit |  |  |  | without the help of a telescope | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer summit=Stimulus |
| 5 | **not** **see** | could | Pygmies *= pygmy* | Giant's upper half |  | misty weather |  | sometimes *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer half=Stimulus |
| 6 | **seem** | past | Giant's long legs |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **stride** | to-infinitive · progressive | Giant's long legs *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by Pygmies *= pygmy*; about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by themselves=Trajectory |
| 8 | **help** |  |  | a telescope |  |  |  |  | nom help «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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