The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 53
The carpenters went forth to meet the king, and said: “Your majesty, if you have need of timber, why did you yourself come? why shouldn’t you have sent men to get it?”
Who acts: carpenters, you · What happens: go, meet, say, have, come, not send · To what, where: king, need, you, timber · 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 (carpenters, you), 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 carpenters | det |
| 2 | carpenters | carpenter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 went | nsubj |
| 3 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | forth | forth | ADV | _ | 3 went | advmod |
| 5 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 meet | mark |
| 6 | meet | meet | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 went | advcl |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 king | det |
| 8 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 meet | obj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 said | punct |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 said | cc |
| 11 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | conj |
| 12 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 15 majesty | punct |
| 13 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 15 majesty | punct |
| 14 | Your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 majesty | nmod:poss |
| 15 | majesty | majesty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 said | ccomp |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 have | punct |
| 17 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 19 have | mark |
| 18 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 19 have | nsubj |
| 19 | have | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 said | ccomp |
| 20 | need | need | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 have | obj |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 22 timber | case |
| 22 | timber | timber | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 need | nmod |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 come | punct |
| 24 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 28 come | advmod |
| 25 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 come | aux |
| 26 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 28 come | nsubj |
| 27 | yourself | yourself | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=2 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 26 you | nmod |
| 28 | come | come | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 have | conj |
| 29 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 28 come | punct |
| 30 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 35 sent | advmod |
| 31 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 35 sent | aux |
| 32 | n’t | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 35 sent | advmod |
| 33 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 35 sent | nsubj:pass |
| 34 | have | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 35 sent | aux |
| 35 | sent | send | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 28 come | advcl |
| 36 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 sent | obj |
| 37 | to | to | PART | _ | 38 get | mark |
| 38 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 35 sent | advcl |
| 39 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 get | obj |
| 40 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
| 41 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | the carpenters | forth property | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | meet | to-infinitive | the carpenters not said here | the king | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Co-Agent | ||||
| 3 | say speech: ask | past | the carpenters not said here | Your majesty ccomp | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||
| 4 | have a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | present | you | need of timber | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent need=Patient | ||||
| 5 | come in a quote | past · do-support | you | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 6 | not send in a quote | should · perfect · passive | you | men obj | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Destination man=Theme | ||||
| 7 | get in a quote | to-infinitive | need | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus | |||||
| 8 | need in a quote | timber | nom need «state 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/pg74064/3/53/