The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 117
And in obedience to his command they threw away the old grass, sticks, and water, and with lightly burdened carts started the caravan forward.
Who acts: drivers, leader · What happens: throw away, burden, start, command · To what, where: old grass, obedience, caravan · 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 (drivers, leader), 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 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 threw | cc |
| 2 | in | in | ADP | _ | 3 obedience | case |
| 3 | obedience | obedience | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 threw | obl |
| 4 | to | to | ADP | _ | 6 command | case |
| 5 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 command | nmod:poss |
| 6 | command | command | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 obedience | nmod |
| 7 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 threw | nsubj |
| 8 | threw | throw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | away | away | ADV | _ | 8 threw | advmod |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 grass | det |
| 11 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 grass | amod |
| 12 | grass | grass | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 threw | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 sticks | punct |
| 14 | sticks | stick | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 grass | conj |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 water | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 water | cc |
| 17 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 threw | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 started | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 started | cc |
| 20 | with | with | ADP | _ | 23 carts | case |
| 21 | lightly | lightly | ADV | _ | 22 burdened | advmod |
| 22 | burdened | burden | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 23 carts | amod |
| 23 | carts | cart | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 started | obl |
| 24 | started | start | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 threw | conj |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 caravan | det |
| 26 | caravan | caravan | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 started | obj |
| 27 | forward | forward | ADV | _ | 24 started | advmod |
| 28 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 threw | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | throw away | past | drivers = driver | the old grass and sticks | obedience to leader's command | water obl; away property | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent grass=Theme in obedience=Destination | ||
| 2 | burden | participle | lightly property | vn equip-13.4.2-1-1 «NP.theme V NP»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | start | past | drivers = driver not said here | the caravan | with burdened carts; forward property | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.subeventuality»: agent=Agent caravan=Eventuality with cart=Subeventuality | |||
| 4 | command | leader | nom command «communication 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/pg74064/14/117/