The grateful elephant, Opening, part 12, sentence 19
In the Hall of Truth the monks began to discuss the incident: “Brethren, such-and-such a monk, they say, while splitting wood at the door of the room where the monks take hot baths, was bitten by a snake and died on the spot.”
Who acts: monks, snakes, snake · What happens: begin, discuss, say, split, take, bite · To what, where: Brethren, Hall, incident, wood, door, hot baths · 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 (monks, snakes, snake), 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 | In | in | ADP | _ | 3 Hall | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 Hall | det |
| 3 | Hall | Hall | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 began | obl |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 Truth | case |
| 5 | Truth | Truth | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 Hall | nmod |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 monks | det |
| 7 | monks | monk | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 began | nsubj |
| 8 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 discuss | mark |
| 10 | discuss | discuss | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 began | xcomp |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 incident | det |
| 12 | incident | incident | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 discuss | obj |
| 13 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 15 Brethren | punct |
| 14 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 15 Brethren | punct |
| 15 | Brethren | Brethren | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 began | obl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 monk | punct |
| 17 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 monk | amod |
| 18 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 23 monk | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 monk | cc |
| 20 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 19 and | punct |
| 21 | such | such | DET | PronType=Ind | 23 monk | det:predet |
| 22 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 monk | det |
| 23 | monk | monk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 Brethren | appos |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 say | punct |
| 25 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 say | nsubj |
| 26 | say | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 Brethren | acl:relcl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 splitting | punct |
| 28 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 29 splitting | mark |
| 29 | splitting | split | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 26 say | ccomp |
| 30 | wood | wood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 splitting | obj |
| 31 | at | at | ADP | _ | 33 door | case |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 door | det |
| 33 | door | door | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 splitting | obl |
| 34 | of | of | ADP | _ | 36 room | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 room | det |
| 36 | room | room | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 door | nmod |
| 37 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 40 take | advmod |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 monks | det |
| 39 | monks | monk | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 take | nsubj |
| 40 | take | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 36 room | acl:relcl |
| 41 | hot | hot | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 42 baths | amod |
| 42 | baths | bath | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 take | obj |
| 43 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 bitten | punct |
| 44 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 45 bitten | aux:pass |
| 45 | bitten | bite | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 began | parataxis |
| 46 | by | by | ADP | _ | 48 snake | case |
| 47 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 48 snake | det |
| 48 | snake | snake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 45 bitten | obl:agent |
| 49 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 50 died | cc |
| 50 | died | die | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 45 bitten | conj |
| 51 | on | on | ADP | _ | 53 spot | case |
| 52 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 53 spot | det |
| 53 | spot | spot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 50 died | obl |
| 54 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 began | punct |
| 55 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 began | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | begin | past | the monks | Brethren | the Hall of Truth | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||
| 2 | discuss speech: other | to-infinitive | the monks not said here | the incident | vn chit_chat-37.6-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent incident=Topic | ||||
| 3 | say speech: assert in a quote | present | snakes = snake | Brethren not said here | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | split in a quote | gerund | wood | the door of the room | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wood=Patient | ||||
| 5 | take in a quote | present | the monks | hot baths | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bath=Theme | ||||
| 6 | bite in a quote | past · passive | a snake | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 7 | die in a quote | past | a snake not said here | the spot | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
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/pg74064/12/19/