The grateful elephant, Opening, part 12, sentence 145
Now, monks, as the hawk was carrying off the quail, the quail thus lamented: “I am indeed unfortunate, I possess little merit,--I who walked in forbidden ground, in a foreign region.
Who acts: hawk, monks, prerogative · What happens: carry off, lament, be, possess, walk in, forbid · To what, where: quail, little merit, forbidden ground, foreign region · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hawk, monks, prerogative), 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 | Now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 17 lamented | advmod |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Now | punct |
| 3 | monks | monk | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 lamented | nsubj |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 carrying | punct |
| 5 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 9 carrying | mark |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 hawk | det |
| 7 | hawk | hawk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 carrying | nsubj |
| 8 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 carrying | aux |
| 9 | carrying | carry | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 3 monks | acl |
| 10 | off | off | ADP | _ | 12 quail | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 quail | det |
| 12 | quail | quail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 carrying | obl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 quail | punct |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 quail | det |
| 15 | quail | quail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 lamented | obl |
| 16 | thus | thus | ADV | _ | 17 lamented | advmod |
| 17 | lamented | lament | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 18 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 23 unfortunate | punct |
| 19 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 23 unfortunate | punct |
| 20 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 23 unfortunate | nsubj |
| 21 | am | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 23 unfortunate | cop |
| 22 | indeed | indeed | ADV | _ | 23 unfortunate | advmod |
| 23 | unfortunate | unfortunate | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 lamented | parataxis |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 possess | punct |
| 25 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 26 possess | nsubj |
| 26 | possess | possess | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 23 unfortunate | parataxis |
| 27 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 merit | amod |
| 28 | merit | merit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 possess | obj |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 possess | punct |
| 30 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 33 walked | punct |
| 31 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 33 walked | nsubj |
| 32 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 33 walked | nsubj |
| 33 | walked | walk | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 lamented | conj |
| 34 | in | in | ADV | _ | 33 walked | advmod |
| 35 | forbidden | forbid | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 36 ground | amod |
| 36 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 walked | obl |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 region | punct |
| 38 | in | in | ADP | _ | 41 region | case |
| 39 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 41 region | det |
| 40 | foreign | foreign | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 region | amod |
| 41 | region | region | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 walked | obl |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 17 lamented | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | carry off | past · progressive | the hawk | the quail | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent quail=Theme | ||||
| 2 | lament | past | monks | the quail | now | thus property | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | ||
| 3 | is in a quote | present | the prerogative = prerogative | indeed, unfortunate property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | possess in a quote | present | the prerogative = prerogative | little merit | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot merit=Theme | ||||
| 5 | walk in in a quote | past | the prerogative = prerogative | forbidden ground | a foreign region | who nsubj | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in region=Trajectory | ||
| 6 | forbid in a quote | participle | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Causer |
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/pg74064/12/145/