The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 8
In former times even animals, because they left their own ancestral region and walked in forbidden ground, fell into the hands of their enemies, but through their own intelligence and resourcefulness escaped from the hands of their enemies.”
Who acts: animals · What happens: leave, walk, fall, escape · To what, where: own ancestral region, forbidden ground, hands, own intelligence
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 (animals), 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 times | case |
| 2 | former | former | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 times | amod |
| 3 | times | time | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 left | obl |
| 4 | even | even | ADV | _ | 5 animals | advmod |
| 5 | animals | animal | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 times | nmod |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 left | punct |
| 7 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 9 left | mark |
| 8 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 left | nsubj |
| 9 | left | leave | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 region | nmod:poss |
| 11 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 region | amod |
| 12 | ancestral | ancestral | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 region | compound |
| 13 | region | region | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 left | obj |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 walked | cc |
| 15 | walked | walk | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 left | conj |
| 16 | in | in | ADP | _ | 18 ground | case |
| 17 | forbidden | forbidden | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 ground | amod |
| 18 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 walked | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 fell | punct |
| 20 | fell | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 left | conj |
| 21 | into | into | ADP | _ | 23 hands | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 hands | det |
| 23 | hands | hand | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 fell | obl |
| 24 | of | of | ADP | _ | 26 enemies | case |
| 25 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 enemies | nmod:poss |
| 26 | enemies | enemy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 hands | nmod |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 escaped | punct |
| 28 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 35 escaped | cc |
| 29 | through | through | ADP | _ | 32 intelligence | case |
| 30 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 intelligence | nmod:poss |
| 31 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 intelligence | amod |
| 32 | intelligence | intelligence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 escaped | obl |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 resourcefulness | cc |
| 34 | resourcefulness | resourcefulness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 intelligence | conj |
| 35 | escaped | escape | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 left | conj |
| 36 | from | from | ADP | _ | 38 hands | case |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 hands | det |
| 38 | hands | hand | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 escaped | obl |
| 39 | of | of | ADP | _ | 41 enemies | case |
| 40 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 41 enemies | nmod:poss |
| 41 | enemies | enemy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 hands | nmod |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 left | punct |
| 43 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 left | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leave | past | animals = animal | animals's own ancestral region | time | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent region=Theme | |||
| 2 | walk | past | animals = animal not said here | forbidden ground | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ground=Trajectory | ||||
| 3 | fall | past | animals = animal not said here | into the hands of animals's enemies result | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into hand=Result | ||||
| 4 | escape | past | animals = animal not said here | animals's own intelligence and resourcefulness | from the hands of animals's enemies | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme through intelligence=Initial_Location from hand=Destination |
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/pg74064/13/8/