The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 13
The monkeys, in obedience to the instructions of their leader, are pulling up the young fig-trees by the roots, examining the roots, watering plentifully the trees with long roots, but sparingly the trees with short roots, and planting them again.
Who acts: monkeys · What happens: pull up, examine, water, plant, instruct · To what, where: young fig trees, roots, trees, monkeys, leader
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 (monkeys), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 monkeys | det |
| 2 | monkeys | monkey | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 pulling | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 obedience | punct |
| 4 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 obedience | case |
| 5 | obedience | obedience | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 monkeys | conj |
| 6 | to | to | ADP | _ | 8 instructions | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 instructions | det |
| 8 | instructions | instruction | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 obedience | nmod |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 11 leader | case |
| 10 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 leader | nmod:poss |
| 11 | leader | leader | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 instructions | nmod |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 monkeys | punct |
| 13 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 pulling | aux |
| 14 | pulling | pull | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 15 | up | up | ADP | _ | 14 pulling | compound:prt |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 trees | det |
| 17 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 trees | amod |
| 18 | fig | fig | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 trees | compound |
| 19 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 18 fig | punct |
| 20 | trees | tree | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 pulling | obj |
| 21 | by | by | ADP | _ | 23 roots | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 roots | det |
| 23 | roots | root | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 trees | nmod |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 examining | punct |
| 25 | examining | examine | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 14 pulling | conj |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 roots | det |
| 27 | roots | root | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 examining | obj |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 watering | punct |
| 29 | watering | water | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 25 examining | conj |
| 30 | plentifully | plentifully | ADV | _ | 29 watering | advmod |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 trees | det |
| 32 | trees | tree | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 watering | obj |
| 33 | with | with | ADP | _ | 35 roots | case |
| 34 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 roots | amod |
| 35 | roots | root | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 watering | obl |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 trees | punct |
| 37 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 40 trees | cc |
| 38 | sparingly | sparingly | ADV | _ | 40 trees | advmod |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 trees | det |
| 40 | trees | tree | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 pulling | obl |
| 41 | with | with | ADP | _ | 43 roots | case |
| 42 | short | short | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 roots | amod |
| 43 | roots | root | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 trees | nmod |
| 44 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 46 planting | punct |
| 45 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 46 planting | cc |
| 46 | planting | plant | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 14 pulling | conj |
| 47 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 46 planting | obj |
| 48 | again | again | ADV | _ | 46 planting | advmod |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 14 pulling | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pull up | present · progressive | the monkeys and obedience to the instructions of monkeys's leader | the young fig trees | by the roots; the trees with short roots obl | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme | |||
| 2 | examine | gerund | the monkeys and obedience to the instructions of monkeys's leader not said here | the roots | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent root=Theme | ||||
| 3 | water | gerund | the monkeys and obedience to the instructions of monkeys's leader not said here | the trees | with long roots; plentifully property | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent tree=Destination with root=Theme | |||
| 4 | plant | gerund | the monkeys and obedience to the instructions of monkeys's leader not said here | monkeys = monkey | again | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient | |||
| 5 | instruct | monkeys's leader | nom instruction «communication transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg74064/3/13/