The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 126

As the courtiers returned to the king, they reflected: “In case we are asked, ‘Where is the prince?’ we will say, ‘We have not seen the prince; it must be that upon seeing a cloud arise he plunged into the water and went on ahead of us.’”

Who acts: courtiers, we, case, that, cloud · What happens: return, reflect, ask, be, say, not see · To what, where: we, prince, that, cloud, water · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (courtiers, we, case, that), 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 returned	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 courtiers	det
3	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 returned	nsubj
4	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 reflected	advcl
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 king	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 king	det
7	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 returned	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 returned	punct
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 reflected	nsubj
10	reflected	reflect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	:	:	PUNCT	_	28 say	punct
12	“	"	PUNCT	_	28 say	punct
13	In	in	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	17 asked	mark
14	case	case	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 In	fixed
15	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	17 asked	nsubj
16	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 asked	aux:pass
17	asked	ask	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	28 say	advcl
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 asked	punct
19	‘	'	PUNCT	_	20 Where	punct
20	Where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	23 prince	advmod
21	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	23 prince	cop
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 prince	det
23	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 asked	obl
24	?	?	PUNCT	_	23 prince	punct
25	’	'	PUNCT	_	23 prince	punct
26	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	28 say	nsubj
27	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	28 say	aux
28	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 reflected	conj
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 seen	punct
30	‘	'	PUNCT	_	34 seen	punct
31	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	34 seen	nsubj
32	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	34 seen	aux
33	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	34 seen	advmod
34	seen	see	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	28 say	ccomp
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 prince	det
36	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 seen	obj
37	;	;	PUNCT	_	46 arise	punct
38	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 that	nsubj
39	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	41 that	aux
40	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	41 that	cop
41	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	46 arise	nsubj
42	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	43 seeing	mark
43	seeing	see	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	41 that	acl
44	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	45 cloud	det
45	cloud	cloud	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 seeing	obj
46	arise	arise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 reflected	parataxis
47	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	48 plunged	nsubj
48	plunged	plunge	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	46 arise	ccomp
49	into	into	ADP	_	51 water	case
50	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	51 water	det
51	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 plunged	obl
52	and	and	CCONJ	_	53 went	cc
53	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	48 plunged	conj
54	on	on	ADV	_	53 went	advmod
55	ahead	ahead	ADV	_	53 went	advmod
56	of	of	ADP	_	57 us	case
57	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	53 went	obl
58	.	.	PUNCT	_	46 arise	punct
59	’	'	PUNCT	_	46 arise	punct
60	”	"	PUNCT	_	10 reflected	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	return	past	the courtiers			to the king result	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to king=Result
2	reflect	past	courtiers = courtier				tree rules
3	ask speech: ask in a quote	present · passive		we			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
4	is a in a quote	present		the prince			tree rules
5	say speech: ask in a quote	future	we				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
6	not see in a quote	present · perfect	We	the prince			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer prince=Stimulus
7	is a in a quote	must	case	that			tree rules
8	see in a quote	gerund		a cloud			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cloud=Stimulus
9	arise in a quote	present	that				tree rules
10	plunge in a quote	past	cloud		the water		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into water=Initial_Location
11	go on in a quote	past	cloud not said here			of us; ahead property	vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg74064/3/126/

🌲 The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 126

The tree

Pragmatics

The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 126