A young man named David Swan falls asleep by the roadside and unknowingly misses several life-changing encounters.
E794664
David Swan is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “David Swan,” whose roadside slumber causes him to unknowingly pass by opportunities for love, wealth, and death.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| A young man named David Swan falls asleep by the roadside and unknowingly misses several life-changing encounters. canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9358429 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A young man named David Swan falls asleep by the roadside and unknowingly misses several life-changing encounters. Context triple: [David Swan, plotSummary, A young man named David Swan falls asleep by the roadside and unknowingly misses several life-changing encounters.]
-
A.
John Swan
John Swan is a Bermudian politician and businessman who served as Premier of Bermuda in the 1980s and early 1990s.
-
B.
No-Man
No-Man is a British art-pop and ambient rock band known for its atmospheric soundscapes and emotionally introspective songwriting.
-
C.
Nick Swinmurn
Nick Swinmurn is an American entrepreneur best known for creating the online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos, which became a pioneering force in e-commerce and customer service.
-
D.
Utah Man
"Utah Man" is the traditional fight song of the University of Utah's athletic teams, especially associated with the Utah Utes football program.
-
E.
Lone Pilgrim
"Lone Pilgrim" is a traditional American folk hymn best known today through Bob Dylan’s somber acoustic rendition on his 1993 album *World Gone Wrong*.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A young man named David Swan falls asleep by the roadside and unknowingly misses several life-changing encounters. Target entity description: David Swan is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “David Swan,” whose roadside slumber causes him to unknowingly pass by opportunities for love, wealth, and death.
-
A.
John Swan
John Swan is a Bermudian politician and businessman who served as Premier of Bermuda in the 1980s and early 1990s.
-
B.
No-Man
No-Man is a British art-pop and ambient rock band known for its atmospheric soundscapes and emotionally introspective songwriting.
-
C.
Nick Swinmurn
Nick Swinmurn is an American entrepreneur best known for creating the online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos, which became a pioneering force in e-commerce and customer service.
-
D.
Utah Man
"Utah Man" is the traditional fight song of the University of Utah's athletic teams, especially associated with the Utah Utes football program.
-
E.
Lone Pilgrim
"Lone Pilgrim" is a traditional American folk hymn best known today through Bob Dylan’s somber acoustic rendition on his 1993 album *World Gone Wrong*.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (41)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional character
ⓘ
short story protagonist ⓘ |
| age | young man ⓘ |
| appearsIn | short story "David Swan" NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| associatedWithAuthorThemes |
moral and philosophical reflection
ⓘ
the role of Providence in human life ⓘ |
| authorCountry | United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| awarenessAtEnd | believes nothing remarkable has happened ⓘ |
| characterType | ordinary traveler ⓘ |
| createdBy | Nathaniel Hawthorne NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| encountersMissedFrom |
a pair of would-be robbers
ⓘ
a wealthy couple seeking an heir ⓘ a young woman who might have loved him ⓘ |
| firstPublicationAuthor | Nathaniel Hawthorne NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| gender | male ⓘ |
| journeyPurpose | traveling to a town (unspecified in description) ⓘ |
| knowledgeOfMissedEvents | none ⓘ |
| literaryDeviceRelation |
dramatic irony
ⓘ
irony ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | 19th-century American literature ⓘ |
| moralImplication | humans may sleep through crucial chances in life ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction | illustrates how life-changing events can pass unnoticed ⓘ |
| narrativeOutcome | wakes up unaware of what he has missed ⓘ |
| nationality | American (fictional) ⓘ |
| notableAction | falls asleep by the roadside ⓘ |
| physicalAction |
lies down to sleep
ⓘ
rests in the shade ⓘ |
| protagonistOf | "David Swan" NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| readerPerspective | reader knows more about his fate than he does ⓘ |
| settingContext | a journey along a country road ⓘ |
| stateDuringEvents | asleep ⓘ |
| storyGenre | short story ⓘ |
| storyLocation | roadside near a spring ⓘ |
| symbolicRole | represents human unawareness of fate ⓘ |
| themeRelation |
chance and missed opportunities
ⓘ
fate versus free will ⓘ unconsciousness to life’s possibilities ⓘ |
| unawareOf | events occurring around him ⓘ |
| unknowinglyMisses |
encounter with death
ⓘ
opportunity for love ⓘ opportunity for wealth ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: A young man named David Swan falls asleep by the roadside and unknowingly misses several life-changing encounters. Description of subject: David Swan is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “David Swan,” whose roadside slumber causes him to unknowingly pass by opportunities for love, wealth, and death.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
David Swan
→
plotSummary
→
A young man named David Swan falls asleep by the roadside and unknowingly misses several life-changing encounters.
ⓘ