The grateful elephant, Opening, part 1, sentence 206
And again: “The bones left by a single person in the course of his past lives would form a pile so huge that were all the mountains to be gathered up and piled in a heap, that heap of mountains would appear as nothing beside it.”
Who acts: bones, heap · What happens: leave, form, gather up, pile, appear · To what, where: bones, pile, mountains, heap
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bones, heap), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 form | cc |
| 2 | again | again | ADV | _ | 20 form | advmod |
| 3 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 20 form | punct |
| 4 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 bones | punct |
| 5 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 bones | det |
| 6 | bones | bone | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 form | nsubj |
| 7 | left | leave | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 bones | acl |
| 8 | by | by | ADP | _ | 11 person | case |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 11 person | det |
| 10 | single | single | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 person | amod |
| 11 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 left | obl |
| 12 | in | in | ADP | _ | 14 course | case |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 course | det |
| 14 | course | course | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 person | nmod |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 lives | case |
| 16 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 lives | nmod:poss |
| 17 | past | past | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 lives | amod |
| 18 | lives | life | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 course | nmod |
| 19 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 20 form | aux |
| 20 | form | form | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 22 pile | det |
| 22 | pile | pile | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 form | obj |
| 23 | so | so | ADV | _ | 24 huge | advmod |
| 24 | huge | huge | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 form | advcl |
| 25 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 32 gathered | mark |
| 26 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 all | cop |
| 27 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 29 mountains | det:predet |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 mountains | det |
| 29 | mountains | mountain | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 gathered | nsubj:pass |
| 30 | to | to | PART | _ | 32 gathered | mark |
| 31 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 32 gathered | aux:pass |
| 32 | gathered | gather | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 24 huge | advcl |
| 33 | up | up | ADP | _ | 32 gathered | compound:prt |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 piled | cc |
| 35 | piled | pile | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 32 gathered | conj |
| 36 | in | in | ADP | _ | 38 heap | case |
| 37 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 38 heap | det |
| 38 | heap | heap | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 piled | obl |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 heap | punct |
| 40 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 41 heap | det |
| 41 | heap | heap | NOUN | Number=Sing | 45 appear | nsubj |
| 42 | of | of | ADP | _ | 43 mountains | case |
| 43 | mountains | mountain | NOUN | Number=Plur | 41 heap | nmod |
| 44 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 45 appear | aux |
| 45 | appear | appear | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 20 form | parataxis |
| 46 | as | as | ADP | _ | 47 nothing | case |
| 47 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 45 appear | obl |
| 48 | beside | beside | ADP | _ | 49 it | case |
| 49 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 47 nothing | nmod |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 20 form | punct |
| 51 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 form | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leave in a quote | participle | the bones not said here | by a single person in the course of water's past lives | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent by person=Location | ||||
| 2 | form in a quote | would | the bones | a pile | again | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location pile=Theme | |||
| 3 | gather up in a quote | to-infinitive · passive | all mountains | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 4 | pile in a quote | participle | a heap | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme in heap=Destination | |||||
| 5 | appear in a quote | would | that heap of mountains | as nothing beside life | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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: «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Project Gutenberg book 74064 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/1/206/