The grateful elephant, Opening, part 10, sentence 166
The little hare, not daring to approach the Vilva tree, stood no great distance off and said: “That, master, is the spot where it went ‘rat-a-tat.’”
Who acts: little hare, master · What happens: not dare, not approach, stand off, say, be, go · To what, where: Vilva tree, great distance, spot, rat tat · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little hare, master), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 hare | det |
| 2 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 hare | amod |
| 3 | hare | hare | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 stood | nsubj |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 daring | punct |
| 5 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 6 daring | advmod |
| 6 | daring | dare | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 3 hare | conj |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 approach | mark |
| 8 | approach | approach | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 daring | xcomp |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 tree | det |
| 10 | Vilva | Vilva | PROPN | Number=Sing | 11 tree | compound |
| 11 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 approach | obj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 hare | punct |
| 13 | stood | stand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 14 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 16 distance | det |
| 15 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 distance | amod |
| 16 | distance | distance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 stood | obj |
| 17 | off | off | ADP | _ | 13 stood | compound:prt |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 said | cc |
| 19 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 stood | conj |
| 20 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 28 spot | punct |
| 21 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 28 spot | punct |
| 22 | That | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 24 master | det |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 master | punct |
| 24 | master | master | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 spot | nsubj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 master | punct |
| 26 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 28 spot | cop |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 spot | det |
| 28 | spot | spot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 said | ccomp |
| 29 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 31 went | advmod |
| 30 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 went | nsubj |
| 31 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 spot | acl:relcl |
| 32 | ‘ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 37 tat | punct |
| 33 | rat | rat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 tat | compound |
| 34 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 37 tat | punct |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 tat | det |
| 36 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 35 a | punct |
| 37 | tat | tat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 went | obl |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 37 tat | punct |
| 39 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 37 tat | punct |
| 40 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 28 spot | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not dare | gerund | the little hare not said here | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | not approach | to-infinitive | the little hare not said here | the Vilva tree | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme | ||||
| 3 | stand off | past | the little hare | no great distance | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer distance=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | say speech: assert | past | the little hare not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | is a in a quote | present | that master | the spot | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | go in a quote | past | master | a rat tat | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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/pg74064/10/166/