---
title: He has a very dull time of it, all by himself; and we ought not to g… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He has a very dull time of it, all by himself; and we ought not to grudge wasting a little of our precious time to amuse him. Who acts: friend, we. 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 50

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He has a very dull time of it, all by himself; and we ought not to grudge wasting a little of our precious time to amuse him.

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**Who acts:** friend, we · **What happens:** have, not grudge, waste, amuse · **To what, where:** little, friend

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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 (friend, we), 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:pg976:7:50
# text = He has a very dull time of it, all by himself; and we ought not to grudge wasting a little of our precious time to amuse him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	all	all	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	grudge	grudge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
20	wasting	waste	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	amuse	amuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | friend |  |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **grudge** | ought | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **waste** | gerund | we *not said here* | a little |  |  | time |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent little=Patient |
| 4 | **amuse** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | friend |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |

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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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