---
title: In the above-described warfare, if a Pygmy chanced to pluck out a cr… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In the above-described warfare, if a Pygmy chanced to pluck out a crane's tail feather, it proved a very great feather in his cap. Who acts: captain. 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 79

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In the above-described warfare, if a Pygmy chanced to pluck out a crane's tail feather, it proved a very great feather in his cap.

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**Who acts:** captain · **What happens:** describe, chance, pluck out, prove · **To what, where:** Pygmy, tail feather, great feather, described warfare

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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 (captain), 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:pg976:7:79
# text = In the above-described warfare, if a Pygmy chanced to pluck out a crane's tail feather, it proved a very great feather in his cap.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
3	above	above	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	described	describe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	amod	_	_
6	warfare	warfare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Pygmy	pygmy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
11	chanced	chance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	pluck	pluck	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	crane	crane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	feather	feather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	proved	prove	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	feather	feather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	cap	cap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **describe** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **chance** | participle |  | a Pygmy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn risk-94-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **pluck out** | to-infinitive |  | a crane's tail feather |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Patient |
| 4 | **prove** | past | captain | a great feather |  | the described warfare and a Pygmy |  | in strategy's cap | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Theme |

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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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