---
title: Whenever this happened, it was truly an awful spectacle to see those… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Whenever this happened, it was truly an awful spectacle to see those little men of might kicking and sprawling in the air, and at last disappearing down the crane's long, crooked throat, swallowed up alive. Who acts: this, truth, little men. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, T
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/75/)

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 75

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Whenever this happened, it was truly an awful spectacle to see those little men of might kicking and sprawling in the air, and at last disappearing down the crane's long, crooked throat, swallowed up alive.

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**Who acts:** this, truth, little men · **What happens:** happen, be, see, kick, sprawl, disappear · **To what, where:** awful spectacle, little men, air, last

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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 (this, truth, little men), 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:pg976:7:75
# text = Whenever this happened, it was truly an awful spectacle to see those little men of might kicking and sprawling in the air, and at last disappearing down the crane's long, crooked throat, swallowed up alive.
1	Whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	3	advmod	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	_
3	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	truly	truly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	awful	awful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	spectacle	spectacle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	_
13	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
16	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	kicking	kick	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	sprawling	sprawl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	conj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	obl	_	_
28	disappearing	disappear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	acl	_	_
29	down	down	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	crane	crane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	's	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
35	crooked	crooked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
38	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	parataxis	_	_
39	up	up	ADP	RP	_	38	compound:prt	_	_
40	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | this |  |  |  |  | whenever *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | truth | a awful spectacle |  |  |  | truly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive | this *not said here* | that little men |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus |
| 4 | **kick** | might | that little men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **sprawl** | gerund | that little men *not said here* |  |  | the air |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in air=Location |
| 6 | **disappear** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | down the crane's long crooked throat | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **swallow up** | participle |  |  |  | last |  | alive *property* | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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