---
title: When his head lay sidewise on the earth, they would march boldly up,… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When his head lay sidewise on the earth, they would march boldly up, and peep into the great cavern of his mouth, and take it all as a joke (as indeed it was meant) when Antaeus gave a sudden snap of his jaws, as if he were going to swallow fifty of them at once. Who acts: head, Pygmies, Antaeus, Ea
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/58/)

<!-- 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/) / 58

# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When his head lay sidewise on the earth, they would march boldly up, and peep into the great cavern of his mouth, and take it all as a joke (as indeed it was meant) when Antaeus gave a sudden snap of his jaws, as if he were going to swallow fifty of them at once.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** head, Pygmies, Antaeus, Earth · **What happens:** lie, march up, take, mean, give, go · **To what, where:** earth, peep, great cavern, head, sudden snap, fifty

<!-- .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 (head, Pygmies, Antaeus, Earth), 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:pg976:7:58
# text = When his head lay sidewise on the earth, they would march boldly up, and peep into the great cavern of his mouth, and take it all as a joke (as indeed it was meant) when Antaeus gave a sudden snap of his jaws, as if he were going to swallow fifty of them at once.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
5	sidewise	sidewise	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	march	march	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	boldly	boldly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	peep	peep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	cavern	cavern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	all	all	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
33	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	38	obl	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux:pass	_	_
38	meant	mean	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	38	punct	_	_
40	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	42	advmod	_	_
41	Antaeus	Antaeus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
42	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
44	sudden	sudden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	snap	snap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	jaws	jaw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
50	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	54	mark	_	_
51	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	54	mark	_	_
52	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	nsubj	_	_
53	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	54	aux	_	_
54	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	42	advcl	_	_
55	to	to	PART	TO	_	56	mark	_	_
56	swallow	swallow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	54	xcomp	_	_
57	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	56	obj	_	_
58	of	of	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
59	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	nmod	_	_
60	at	at	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
61	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	56	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | Earth's head |  |  | the earth |  | sidewise *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on earth=Location |
| 2 | **march up** | would | Pygmies *= pygmy* | peep |  |  |  | into the great cavern of Earth's mouth *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into cavern=Result |
| 3 | **take** | infinitive | Pygmies *= pygmy* *not said here* | head |  |  |  | as a joke | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent it=Theme as joke=Attribute |
| 4 | **mean** | past · passive |  | head |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Topic as indeed=Attribute |
| 5 | **give** | past | Antaeus | a sudden snap of Earth's jaws |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent snap=Theme |
| 6 | **go** | past · progressive | Earth |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **swallow** | to-infinitive | Earth *not said here* | fifty of Pygmies |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fifty=Patient |
| 8 | **snap** |  |  | Earth's jaws |  |  |  |  | nom snap «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.

<!-- 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 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/57/)
- next →: [sentence 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/59/)
- ↑ back to [The Pygmies., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/)