---
title: But two or three venerable and sagacious Pygmies, well versed in sta… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But two or three venerable and sagacious Pygmies, well versed in state affairs, gave it as their opinion that war already existed, and that it was their rightful privilege to take the enemy by surprise. Who acts: two venerable Pygmies, war, Pygmies. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawt
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 3, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But two or three venerable and sagacious Pygmies, well versed in state affairs, gave it as their opinion that war already existed, and that it was their rightful privilege to take the enemy by surprise.

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**Who acts:** two venerable Pygmies, war, Pygmies · **What happens:** verse, give, exist, be, take, opine · **To what, where:** two venerable Pygmies, state affairs, blast, opinion, rightful privilege, enemy

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two venerable Pygmies, war, Pygmies), 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:pg976:9:37
# text = But two or three venerable and sagacious Pygmies, well versed in state affairs, gave it as their opinion that war already existed, and that it was their rightful privilege to take the enemy by surprise.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
2	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
3	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	conj	_	_
5	venerable	venerable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	sagacious	sagacious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
8	Pygmies	pygmy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	_
11	versed	verse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	affairs	affair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
16	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	opinion	opinion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obj	_	_
22	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	already	already	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	existed	exist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	rightful	rightful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	privilege	privilege	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	acl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	by	by	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **verse** | participle |  | two venerable Pygmies *not said here* |  | state affairs |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** | past | two venerable Pygmies | blast |  |  |  | as Pygmies's opinion | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **exist** | past | war | Pygmies's opinion |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | war | Pygmies's rightful privilege |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **take** | to-infinitive | two venerable Pygmies *not said here* | the enemy |  |  |  | by surprise | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent enemy=Theme |
| 6 | **opine** |  | Pygmies *= pygmy* |  |  |  |  |  | nom opinion «cognition transitive»: poss=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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