---
title: But I doubt whether more than half a dozen of them punctured the ski… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But I doubt whether more than half a dozen of them punctured the skin, which was remarkably tough, as you know the skin of a hero has good need to be. Who acts: I, dozen, skin, you. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 3, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But I doubt whether more than half a dozen of them punctured the skin, which was remarkably tough, as you know the skin of a hero has good need to be.

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**Who acts:** I, dozen, skin, you · **What happens:** doubt, puncture, be, know, have · **To what, where:** skin, good need · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I, dozen, skin, you), 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:pg976:9:54
# text = But I doubt whether more than half a dozen of them punctured the skin, which was remarkably tough, as you know the skin of a hero has good need to be.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	doubt	doubt	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
5	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	9	advmod	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	5	fixed	_	_
7	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	9	det:predet	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dozen	dozen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	_
12	punctured	puncture	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	remarkably	remarkably	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	tough	tough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	hero	hero	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
29	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	ccomp	_	_
30	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	need	need	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **doubt** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **puncture** | past | half dozen of archers | the skin |  |  |  |  | vn poke-19 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | the skin |  |  |  |  | remarkably, tough *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **have** | present | the skin of a hero | good need |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent need=Patient |

<!-- .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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