---
title: The truth was that unless the Giant touched Mother Earth as often as… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The truth was that unless the Giant touched Mother Earth as often as once in five minutes, not only his overgrown strength, but the very breath of his life, would depart from him. Who acts: Giant, breath. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 2, with its depende
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 2, sentence 98

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The truth was that unless the Giant touched Mother Earth as often as once in five minutes, not only his overgrown strength, but the very breath of his life, would depart from him.

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**Who acts:** Giant, breath · **What happens:** be, depart · **To what, where:** truth

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Giant, breath), 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:pg976:8:98
# text = The truth was that unless the Giant touched Mother Earth as often as once in five minutes, not only his overgrown strength, but the very breath of his life, would depart from him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	nsubj	_	_
8	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
9	Mother	Mother	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	Earth	Earth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	as	as	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	often	often	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	12	obl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
20	only	only	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	overgrown	overgrown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	very	very	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
33	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	depart	depart	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
35	from	from	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Giant | the truth *not said here* |  |  | minute | often, touch *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **depart** | would | the breath of enemy's life |  |  |  |  | from enemy | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from he=Initial\_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.

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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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