The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 35
When the elephant was well, he thought: “I owe my life to these carpenters; now I ought to do something for them.”
Who acts: elephant · What happens: be, think, owe, do · To what, where: life, carpenters, something · 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 (elephant), 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 | When | when | SCONJ | _ | 4 was | mark |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 elephant | det |
| 3 | elephant | elephant | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 was | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 thought | advcl |
| 5 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 4 was | advmod |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 was | punct |
| 7 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 thought | nsubj |
| 8 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 12 owe | punct |
| 10 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 owe | punct |
| 11 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 12 owe | nsubj |
| 12 | owe | owe | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 thought | ccomp |
| 13 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 life | nmod:poss |
| 14 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 owe | obj |
| 15 | to | to | ADP | _ | 17 carpenters | case |
| 16 | these | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 17 carpenters | det |
| 17 | carpenters | carpenter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 owe | obl |
| 18 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 23 do | punct |
| 19 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 23 do | advmod |
| 20 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 23 do | nsubj |
| 21 | ought | ought | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 23 do | aux |
| 22 | to | to | PART | _ | 23 do | mark |
| 23 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 thought | ccomp |
| 24 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 23 do | obj |
| 25 | for | for | ADP | _ | 26 them | case |
| 26 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 do | obl |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 23 do | punct |
| 28 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 23 do | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | past | the elephant | well property | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | think speech: other | past | Elephant | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | owe in a quote | present | Elephant | my life | to this carpenters goal | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent life=Theme to carpenter=Goal | |||
| 4 | do in a quote | ought | Elephant | something | now | for carpenters = carpenter | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Eventuality |
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/pg74064/3/35/