The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 72
The citizens closed the gates of the city and sent the following message to the king of Kosala: “The chief consort of our king is about to give birth to a child.
Who acts: citizens, chief consort · What happens: close, send, follow, be, give · To what, where: gates, following message, king, birth, child · 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 (citizens, chief consort), 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 citizens | det |
| 2 | citizens | citizen | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 closed | nsubj |
| 3 | closed | close | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 gates | det |
| 5 | gates | gate | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 closed | obj |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 city | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 city | det |
| 8 | city | city | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 gates | nmod |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 sent | cc |
| 10 | sent | send | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 closed | conj |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 message | det |
| 12 | following | follow | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 13 message | amod |
| 13 | message | message | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 sent | obj |
| 14 | to | to | ADP | _ | 16 king | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 king | det |
| 16 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 sent | obl |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 Kosala | case |
| 18 | Kosala | Kosala | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 king | nmod |
| 19 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 28 about | punct |
| 20 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 28 about | punct |
| 21 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 consort | det |
| 22 | chief | chief | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 consort | amod |
| 23 | consort | consort | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 about | nsubj |
| 24 | of | of | ADP | _ | 26 king | case |
| 25 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 king | nmod:poss |
| 26 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 consort | nmod |
| 27 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 28 about | cop |
| 28 | about | about | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 closed | parataxis |
| 29 | to | to | PART | _ | 30 give | mark |
| 30 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 28 about | xcomp |
| 31 | birth | birth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 give | obj |
| 32 | to | to | ADP | _ | 34 child | case |
| 33 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 34 child | det |
| 34 | child | child | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 give | obl |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 closed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | close | past | the citizens | the gates of the city | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | send | past | the citizens not said here | the following message | the king of Kosala | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent message=Theme to king=Destination | |||
| 3 | follow | gerund | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 4 | is in a quote | present | the chief consort of our king | about property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | give in a quote | to-infinitive | the chief consort of our king not said here | birth | a child | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent birth=Theme to child=Recipient |
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/pg74064/3/72/