---
title: Hercules was so tickled with the Pygmy's big words and warlike gestu… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Hercules was so tickled with the Pygmy's big words and warlike gestures, that he burst into a great explosion of laughter, and almost dropped the poor little mite of a creature off the palm of his hand, through the ecstasy and convulsion of his merriment. Who acts: Hercules, Pygmy. A sentence of «Ta
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 3, sentence 66

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Hercules was so tickled with the Pygmy's big words and warlike gestures, that he burst into a great explosion of laughter, and almost dropped the poor little mite of a creature off the palm of his hand, through the ecstasy and convulsion of his merriment.

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**Who acts:** Hercules, Pygmy · **What happens:** tickle, burst, drop, word, explode · **To what, where:** Hercules, great explosion, poor little mite, ecstasy, laughter

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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 (Hercules, Pygmy), 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:pg976:9:66
# text = Hercules was so tickled with the Pygmy's big words and warlike gestures, that he burst into a great explosion of laughter, and almost dropped the poor little mite of a creature off the palm of his hand, through the ecstasy and convulsion of his merriment.
1	Hercules	Hercules	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	tickled	tickle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Pygmy	Pygmy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	warlike	warlike	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	gestures	gesture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	burst	burst	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	explosion	explosion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	mite	mite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
35	off	off	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
42	through	through	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	ecstasy	ecstasy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	convulsion	convulsion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	conj	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	merriment	merriment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tickle** | past · passive |  | Hercules |  |  |  | with the Pygmy's big words and warlike gestures | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: subject=Experiencer with word=Instrument |
| 2 | **burst** | past | Hercules |  |  | a great explosion of laughter |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **drop** | past | Hercules *not said here* | the poor little mite of a creature off the palm of Hercules's hand |  | the ecstasy of Hercules's merriment and convulsion |  | almost *property* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent mite=Theme through ecstasy=Destination |
| 4 | **word** |  | the Pygmy |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **explode** |  |  | laughter |  |  |  |  | nom explosion «event transitive»: of=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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