The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 11
As the monks walked about, they saw a certain cleared space, and asked: “This space is cleared, without growing trees; what, pray, is the reason for this?”
Who acts: monks · What happens: walk, see, clear, ask, grow, pray · To what, where: certain cleared space, space, reason · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (monks), 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 | As | as | SCONJ | _ | 4 walked | mark |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 monks | det |
| 3 | monks | monk | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 walked | nsubj |
| 4 | walked | walk | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 saw | advcl |
| 5 | about | about | ADV | _ | 4 walked | advmod |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 walked | punct |
| 7 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 saw | nsubj |
| 8 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 space | det |
| 10 | certain | certain | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 space | amod |
| 11 | cleared | clear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 12 space | amod |
| 12 | space | space | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 saw | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 asked | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 asked | cc |
| 15 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 saw | conj |
| 16 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 21 cleared | punct |
| 17 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 21 cleared | punct |
| 18 | This | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 19 space | det |
| 19 | space | space | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 cleared | nsubj:pass |
| 20 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 21 cleared | aux:pass |
| 21 | cleared | clear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 15 asked | parataxis |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 trees | punct |
| 23 | without | without | ADP | _ | 25 trees | case |
| 24 | growing | grow | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 25 trees | amod |
| 25 | trees | tree | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 cleared | obl |
| 26 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 27 what | punct |
| 27 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 8 saw | parataxis |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 pray | punct |
| 29 | pray | pray | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 27 what | acl:relcl |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 reason | punct |
| 31 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 33 reason | cop |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 reason | det |
| 33 | reason | reason | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 saw | parataxis |
| 34 | for | for | ADP | _ | 35 this | case |
| 35 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 33 reason | nmod |
| 36 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 33 reason | punct |
| 37 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 33 reason | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | walk | past | the monks | about property | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | see | past | Monks = monk | a certain cleared space | what parataxis | tree rules | |||
| 3 | clear | participle | vn clear-10.3-1 «NP.Source V»: agent=Source | ||||||
| 4 | ask speech: ask | past | Monks = monk not said here | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | clear in a quote | present · passive | this space | without growing trees | vn clear-10.3-1 «NP V NP.source»: subject=Source | ||||
| 6 | grow in a quote | gerund | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 7 | pray in a quote | present | vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot | ||||||
| 8 | is a in a quote | present | the reason | for this | tree rules |
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/pg74064/14/11/