---
title: But this was one of those unlucky accidents for which nobody is to b… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But this was one of those unlucky accidents for which nobody is to blame; so that the small folks never took it to heart, and only requested the Giant to be careful forever afterwards to examine the acre of ground where he intended to squat himself. Who acts: this, nobody, small folks, Antaeus. A se
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/39/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Tanglewood Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/) / [The Pygmies., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/) / 39

# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But this was one of those unlucky accidents for which nobody is to blame; so that the small folks never took it to heart, and only requested the Giant to be careful forever afterwards to examine the acre of ground where he intended to squat himself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** this, nobody, small folks, Antaeus · **What happens:** be, not take, request, examine, intend, squat · **To what, where:** one, review, Giant, acre, Antaeus

<!-- .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 (this, nobody, small folks, Antaeus), 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:pg976:7:39
# text = But this was one of those unlucky accidents for which nobody is to blame; so that the small folks never took it to heart, and only requested the Giant to be careful forever afterwards to examine the acre of ground where he intended to squat himself.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
7	unlucky	unlucky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	accidents	accident	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	obl	_	_
11	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	14	nsubj	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	blame	blame	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	22	mark	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	fixed	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	folks	folk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
21	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	only	only	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	requested	request	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	cop	_	_
34	careful	careful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	advcl	_	_
35	forever	forever	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	afterwards	afterwards	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	examine	examine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	acre	acre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod	_	_
43	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	45	advmod	_	_
44	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
45	intended	intend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	acl:relcl	_	_
46	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
47	squat	squat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	xcomp	_	_
48	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | this | one |  |  |  | of that unlucky accidents | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | nobody |  |  |  |  | for that unlucky accidents; blame *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **take** | past | the small folks | review |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **request** | past | the small folks *not said here* | the Giant |  |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent giant=Recipient |
| 5 | **is** | to-infinitive | the small folks *not said here* |  |  |  |  | afterwards, careful *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **examine** | to-infinitive | the small folks *not said here* | the acre of ground |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent acre=Theme |
| 7 | **intend** | past | Antaeus |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 8 | **squat** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Antaeus *not said here* | Antaeus |  |  |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme himself=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/38/)
- next →: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/40/)
- ↑ back to [The Pygmies., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/)