---
title: The Pygmies were so small, and there were so many sandy deserts and… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The Pygmies were so small, and there were so many sandy deserts and such high mountains between them and the rest of mankind, that nobody could get a peep at them oftener than once in a hundred years. Who acts: Pygmies, many sandy deserts, nobody. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawtho
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 3

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The Pygmies were so small, and there were so many sandy deserts and such high mountains between them and the rest of mankind, that nobody could get a peep at them oftener than once in a hundred years.

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**Who acts:** Pygmies, many sandy deserts, nobody · **What happens:** be, get · **To what, where:** peep

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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 (Pygmies, many sandy deserts, nobody), 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:pg976:7:3
# text = The Pygmies were so small, and there were so many sandy deserts and such high mountains between them and the rest of mankind, that nobody could get a peep at them oftener than once in a hundred years.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Pygmies	pygmy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	sandy	sandy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	deserts	desert	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
18	between	between	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	mankind	mankind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	29	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	peep	peep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	_
34	oftener	often	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	29	xcomp	_	_
35	than	than	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	34	obl	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	40	nummod	_	_
40	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Pygmies |  |  |  |  | small *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | past | many sandy deserts and such high mountains between Pygmies |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **get** | could | nobody | a peep |  |  | year | at Pygmies *= pygmy*; often *property* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent peep=Theme at they=Asset |

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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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