The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 77
Said the Teacher: “Thus, lay disciples, in a previous state of existence also they were the very men who, with the thought in their minds, ‘We’ll hit a mosquito,’ hit something very different.”
Who acts: Teacher, disciples, We, men · What happens: say, lay, be, hit, mind · To what, where: disciples, previous state, men, mosquito, something · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Teacher, disciples, We, men), 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 | Said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 Teacher | det |
| 3 | Teacher | teacher | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Said | nsubj |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 8 lay | punct |
| 5 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 lay | punct |
| 6 | Thus | thus | ADV | _ | 8 lay | advmod |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 Thus | punct |
| 8 | lay | lay | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 Said | conj |
| 9 | disciples | disciple | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 lay | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 state | punct |
| 11 | in | in | ADP | _ | 14 state | case |
| 12 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 state | det |
| 13 | previous | previous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 state | amod |
| 14 | state | state | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 lay | obl |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 existence | case |
| 16 | existence | existence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 state | nmod |
| 17 | also | also | ADV | _ | 22 men | advmod |
| 18 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 men | nsubj |
| 19 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 men | cop |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 men | det |
| 21 | very | very | ADV | _ | 22 men | advmod |
| 22 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 lay | obl |
| 23 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 40 hit | nsubj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 thought | punct |
| 25 | with | with | ADP | _ | 27 thought | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 thought | det |
| 27 | thought | thought | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 hit | nsubj |
| 28 | in | in | ADP | _ | 30 minds | case |
| 29 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 minds | nmod:poss |
| 30 | minds | mind | NOUN | Number=Plur | 27 thought | nmod |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 hit | punct |
| 32 | ‘ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 35 hit | punct |
| 33 | We | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 35 hit | nsubj |
| 34 | ’ll | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 35 hit | aux |
| 35 | hit | hit | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 30 minds | parataxis |
| 36 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 mosquito | det |
| 37 | mosquito | mosquito | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 hit | obj |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 hit | punct |
| 39 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 35 hit | punct |
| 40 | hit | hit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 men | acl:relcl |
| 41 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 40 hit | obj |
| 42 | very | very | ADV | _ | 43 different | advmod |
| 43 | different | different | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 hit | xcomp |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Said | punct |
| 45 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 1 Said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | the Teacher | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | lay in a quote | present | the Teacher not said here | disciples | a previous state of existence | thus property | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent disciple=Theme in state=Destination | ||
| 3 | is a in a quote | past | disciples = disciple | the men | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | hit in a quote | future | We | a mosquito | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mosquito=Co-Theme | ||||
| 5 | hit in a quote | past | the men | something | the thought in disciples's minds nsubj; different property | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme something=Co-Theme | |||
| 6 | mind in a quote | disciples = disciple | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg74064/13/77/