The grateful elephant, Opening, part 16, sentence 77

Then the snakes in despair licked the bed of darbha-grass with their tongues, thinking that there might be so much as a drop of the drink of immortality spilt thereon; whereupon--wonderful to relate--their tongues became split, and they became double-tongued for nothing.

Who acts: snakes, tongues · What happens: lick, think, be, relate, become, split · To what, where: bed

This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (snakes, tongues), 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	Then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 licked	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 snakes	det
3	snakes	snake	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 licked	nsubj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 despair	case
5	despair	despair	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 snakes	nmod
6	licked	lick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 bed	det
8	bed	bed	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 licked	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	12 grass	case
10	darbha	darbha	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 grass	compound
11	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 darbha	punct
12	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 bed	nmod
13	with	with	ADP	_	15 tongues	case
14	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 tongues	nmod:poss
15	tongues	tongue	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 licked	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 thinking	punct
17	thinking	think	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 licked	advcl
18	that	that	SCONJ	_	23 much	mark
19	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	21 be	expl
20	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	21 be	aux
21	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	23 much	cop
22	so	so	ADV	_	23 much	advmod
23	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 thinking	obj
24	as	as	ADP	_	26 drop	case
25	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	26 drop	det
26	drop	drop	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 much	obl
27	of	of	ADP	_	29 drink	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 drink	det
29	drink	drink	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 drop	nmod
30	of	of	ADP	_	32 spilt	case
31	immortality	immortality	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 spilt	compound
32	spilt	spilt	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 drink	nmod
33	thereon	thereon	ADV	_	23 much	advmod
34	;	;	PUNCT	_	37 wonderful	punct
35	whereupon	whereupon	ADV	PronType=Int	37 wonderful	advmod
36	--	--	PUNCT	_	37 wonderful	punct
37	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 licked	parataxis
38	to	to	PART	_	39 relate	mark
39	relate	relate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	37 wonderful	advcl
40	--	--	PUNCT	_	43 became	punct
41	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 tongues	nmod:poss
42	tongues	tongue	NOUN	Number=Plur	43 became	nsubj
43	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 licked	parataxis
44	split	split	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	43 became	xcomp
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	48 became	punct
46	and	and	CCONJ	_	48 became	cc
47	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	48 became	nsubj
48	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	43 became	conj
49	double	double	ADJ	Degree=Pos	51 tongued	compound
50	-	-	PUNCT	_	49 double	punct
51	tongued	tongue	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	48 became	xcomp
52	for	for	ADP	_	53 nothing	case
53	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	51 tongued	obl
54	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 licked	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	lick	past	the snakes in despair	the bed of darbha grass	then	with snakes's tongues	vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent bed=Theme with tongue=Instrument
2	think speech: other	gerund	the snakes in despair not said here				vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is	infinitive				as a drop of the drink of immortality spilt; much, thereon property	tree rules
4	relate	to-infinitive	the snakes in despair not said here				vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme
5	become	past	snakes's tongues				tree rules
6	split	participle	snakes's tongues not said here				vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
7	become	past	snakes = snake				tree rules
8	tongue	participle	snakes = snake not said here			for nothing	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/pg74064/16/77/

🌲 The grateful elephant, Opening, part 16, sentence 77

The tree

Pragmatics

The grateful elephant, Opening, part 16, sentence 77