---
title: At that moment the twenty thousand archers twanged their bowstrings,… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At that moment the twenty thousand archers twanged their bowstrings, and the arrows came whizzing, like so many winged mosquitoes, right into the face of Hercules. Who acts: thousand archers, arrows. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 3, with its dependency t
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 3, sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At that moment the twenty thousand archers twanged their bowstrings, and the arrows came whizzing, like so many winged mosquitoes, right into the face of Hercules.

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**Who acts:** thousand archers, arrows · **What happens:** twang, come, whiz, wing · **To what, where:** bowstrings, face

<!-- .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 (thousand archers, arrows), 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:pg976:9:53
# text = At that moment the twenty thousand archers twanged their bowstrings, and the arrows came whizzing, like so many winged mosquitoes, right into the face of Hercules.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	compound	_	_
6	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	archers	archer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	twanged	twang	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	bowstrings	bowstring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	arrows	arrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
16	whizzing	whiz	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	winged	wing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	amod	_	_
22	mosquitoes	mosquito	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	right	right	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	Hercules	Hercules	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **twang** | past | the thousand archers | archers's bowstrings |  |  | moment |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bowstring=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | past | the arrows |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **whiz** | gerund | the arrows *not said here* |  |  | the face of Hercules |  | like many winged mosquitoes | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into face=Destination |
| 4 | **wing** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent 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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