The grateful elephant, Opening, part 15, sentence 2
And joining his hands and pressing them to his head in token of reverent salutation, he spoke as follows: “Reverend Sir, it is clear to us that these laymen just now burst asunder the Supreme Refuge and chose instead speculation.
Who acts: merchant, laymen · What happens: join, press, speak, follow, be, burst · To what, where: hands, Reverend Sir, us, asunder, speculation · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant, laymen), 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 | _ | 2 joining | cc |
| 2 | joining | join | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 18 spoke | advcl |
| 3 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 4 hands | nmod:poss |
| 4 | hands | hand | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 joining | obj |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 6 pressing | cc |
| 6 | pressing | press | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 joining | conj |
| 7 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 pressing | obj |
| 8 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 head | case |
| 9 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 head | nmod:poss |
| 10 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 pressing | obl |
| 11 | in | in | ADP | _ | 12 token | case |
| 12 | token | token | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 head | nmod |
| 13 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 salutation | case |
| 14 | reverent | reverent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 salutation | amod |
| 15 | salutation | salutation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 token | nmod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 joining | punct |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 spoke | nsubj |
| 18 | spoke | speak | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 19 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 20 follows | mark |
| 20 | follows | follow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 18 spoke | ccomp |
| 21 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 24 Sir | punct |
| 22 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 24 Sir | punct |
| 23 | Reverend | Reverend | PROPN | Number=Sing | 24 Sir | compound |
| 24 | Sir | Sir | PROPN | Number=Sing | 18 spoke | obl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 clear | punct |
| 26 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 clear | expl |
| 27 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 28 clear | cop |
| 28 | clear | clear | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 Sir | conj |
| 29 | to | to | ADP | _ | 30 us | case |
| 30 | us | we | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 28 clear | obl |
| 31 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 42 chose | mark |
| 32 | these | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 33 laymen | det |
| 33 | laymen | layman | NOUN | Number=Plur | 42 chose | nsubj |
| 34 | just | just | ADV | _ | 36 burst | advmod |
| 35 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 36 burst | advmod |
| 36 | burst | burst | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 33 laymen | acl:relcl |
| 37 | asunder | asunder | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 burst | xcomp |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 Refuge | det |
| 39 | Supreme | Supreme | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 Refuge | amod |
| 40 | Refuge | Refuge | PROPN | Number=Sing | 42 chose | nsubj |
| 41 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 Refuge | cc |
| 42 | chose | choose | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 clear | advcl |
| 43 | instead | instead | ADV | _ | 44 speculation | advmod |
| 44 | speculation | speculation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 chose | obj |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 18 spoke | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | join | gerund | merchant not said here | merchant's hands | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient | ||||
| 2 | press | gerund | merchant not said here | hands = hand | to merchant's head in token of reverent salutation | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | |||
| 3 | speak speech: other | past | merchant | Reverend Sir | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | follow | present | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 5 | is in a quote | present | merchant not said here | us | clear property | tree rules | |||
| 6 | burst in a quote | participle | this laymen not said here | asunder | now | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||
| 7 | choose in a quote | past | this laymen | speculation | the Supreme Refuge nsubj | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent speculation=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/pg74064/15/2/