The grateful elephant, Opening, part 12, sentence 78
“Sirs, when I was a youngster, I used to walk over this banyan tree, keeping it between my thighs; the little tips of the shoots would just touch my belly.
Who acts: monks, Sirs · What happens: be, use, walk, keep, touch · To what, where: youngster, banyan tree, tree, thighs, belly
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, Sirs), 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 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 Sirs | punct |
| 2 | Sirs | sir | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 touch | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 youngster | punct |
| 4 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 8 youngster | advmod |
| 5 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 8 youngster | nsubj |
| 6 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 youngster | cop |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 youngster | det |
| 8 | youngster | youngster | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 Sirs | nmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 used | punct |
| 10 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 11 used | nsubj |
| 11 | used | use | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 youngster | acl:relcl |
| 12 | to | to | PART | _ | 13 walk | mark |
| 13 | walk | walk | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 used | xcomp |
| 14 | over | over | ADP | _ | 17 tree | case |
| 15 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 17 tree | det |
| 16 | banyan | banyan | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 tree | compound |
| 17 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 walk | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 keeping | punct |
| 19 | keeping | keep | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 13 walk | advcl |
| 20 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 keeping | obj |
| 21 | between | between | ADP | _ | 23 thighs | case |
| 22 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 thighs | nmod:poss |
| 23 | thighs | thigh | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 keeping | obl |
| 24 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 27 tips | punct |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 tips | det |
| 26 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 tips | amod |
| 27 | tips | tip | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 Sirs | conj |
| 28 | of | of | ADP | _ | 30 shoots | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 shoots | det |
| 30 | shoots | shoot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 27 tips | nmod |
| 31 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 33 touch | aux |
| 32 | just | just | ADV | _ | 33 touch | advmod |
| 33 | touch | touch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 34 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 35 belly | nmod:poss |
| 35 | belly | belly | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 touch | obj |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 33 touch | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a in a quote | past | monks and the partridge and the monkey = monk | a youngster | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | use in a quote | past | monks and the partridge and the monkey = monk | a youngster not said here | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent youngster=Theme clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | walk in a quote | to-infinitive | monks and the partridge and the monkey = monk not said here | this banyan tree | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over tree=Trajectory | ||||
| 4 | keep in a quote | gerund | monks and the partridge and the monkey = monk not said here | tree | my thighs | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme between thigh=Location | |||
| 5 | touch in a quote | would | Sirs and the little tips of the shoots | my belly | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme belly=Co-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/pg74064/12/78/