--- title: After holding a council, the captains ordered their troops to collec… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics description: After holding a council, the captains ordered their troops to collect sticks, straws, dry weeds, and whatever combustible stuff they could find, and make a pile of it, heaping it high around the head of Hercules. Who acts: captains, troops, combustible stuff. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nath --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/9/46/) [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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/9/) / 46 # Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 3, sentence 46 After holding a council, the captains ordered their troops to collect sticks, straws, dry weeds, and whatever combustible stuff they could find, and make a pile of it, heaping it high around the head of Hercules. **Who acts:** captains, troops, combustible stuff · **What happens:** hold, order, collect, find, make, heap · **To what, where:** council, troops, sticks, pile, stuff, head 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 (captains, troops, combustible stuff), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg976:9:46 # text = After holding a council, the captains ordered their troops to collect sticks, straws, dry weeds, and whatever combustible stuff they could find, and make a pile of it, heaping it high around the head of Hercules. 1 After after SCONJ IN _ 2 mark _ _ 2 holding hold VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 8 advcl _ _ 3 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 4 council council NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 captains captain NOUN NNS Number=Plur 8 nsubj _ _ 8 ordered order VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 9 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 10 nmod:poss _ _ 10 troops troops NOUN NNS Number=Ptan 8 obj _ _ 11 to to PART TO _ 12 mark _ _ 12 collect collect VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 xcomp _ _ 13 sticks stick NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 14 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 15 straws straw NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 17 dry dry ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 18 amod _ _ 18 weeds weed NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 20 and and CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ _ 21 whatever whatever PRON WP PronType=Rel 8 parataxis _ _ 22 combustible combustible NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 compound _ _ 23 stuff stuff NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 nsubj _ _ 24 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 26 nsubj _ _ 25 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 26 aux _ _ 26 find find VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 21 acl:relcl _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 28 and and CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 29 make make VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 conj _ _ 30 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 31 pile pile NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obj _ _ 32 of of ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 33 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 35 heaping heap VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 29 advcl _ _ 36 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 obj _ _ 37 high high ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 35 xcomp _ _ 38 around around ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 39 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 40 det _ _ 40 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obl _ _ 41 of of ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 42 Hercules Hercules PROPN NNP Number=Sing 40 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 8 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **hold** | gerund | the captains *not said here* | a council | | | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent council=Theme | | 2 | **order** | past | the captains | captains's troops | | | | | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent troops=Recipient clause=Topic | | 3 | **collect** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | captains's troops *not said here* | sticks and straws and dry weeds | | | | | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme | | 4 | **find** | could | combustible stuff | | | | | | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **make** | infinitive | the captains *not said here* | a pile of stuff | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset pile=Product | | 6 | **heap** | gerund | the captains *not said here* | stuff | | the head of Hercules | | high *property* | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme around head=Destination | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/9/45/) - next →: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/9/47/) - ↑ back to [The Pygmies., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/9/)