---
title: The Giant's life being as long as his body was large, while the life… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The Giant's life being as long as his body was large, while the lifetime of a Pygmy was but a span, this friendly intercourse had been going on for innumerable generations and ages. Who acts: life, span. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 1, with its dependen
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 35

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The Giant's life being as long as his body was large, while the lifetime of a Pygmy was but a span, this friendly intercourse had been going on for innumerable generations and ages.

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**Who acts:** life, span · **What happens:** be, go on · **To what, where:** lifetime

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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 (life, span), 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:pg976:7:35
# text = The Giant's life being as long as his body was large, while the lifetime of a Pygmy was but a span, this friendly intercourse had been going on for innumerable generations and ages.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:outer	_	_
5	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	lifetime	lifetime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Pygmy	Pygmy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	span	span	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	det	_	_
26	friendly	friendly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	intercourse	intercourse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	aux	_	_
30	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	acl	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	innumerable	innumerable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	generations	generation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	ages	age	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | gerund | the Giant's life |  |  |  |  | the lifetime of a Pygmy *obl*; large, long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **go on** | past · perfect · progressive | a span and this friendly intercourse | the lifetime of a Pygmy *not said here* |  |  | for innumerable generations and ages |  | tree rules |

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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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- ← previous: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/34/)
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