The grateful elephant, Opening, part 6, sentence 59
Hearing him, he asked his men: “Who was it, pray, that rose at night, at time of dawn, and sang and played the lute with charming voice in the elephant-stable?”
Who acts: king, lute, that · What happens: hear, ask, be, pray, rise, sing · To what, where: king, men, lute, elephant stable · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, lute, 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 | Hearing | hear | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 asked | advcl |
| 2 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 1 Hearing | obj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Hearing | punct |
| 4 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 asked | nsubj |
| 5 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 men | nmod:poss |
| 7 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 asked | obj |
| 8 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 14 pray | punct |
| 9 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 14 pray | punct |
| 10 | Who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 12 it | nsubj |
| 11 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 it | cop |
| 12 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 pray | nsubj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 it | punct |
| 14 | pray | pray | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 asked | parataxis |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 rose | punct |
| 16 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 17 rose | nsubj |
| 17 | rose | rise | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 pray | conj |
| 18 | at | at | ADP | _ | 19 night | case |
| 19 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 rose | obl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 time | punct |
| 21 | at | at | ADP | _ | 22 time | case |
| 22 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 rose | obl |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 24 dawn | case |
| 24 | dawn | dawn | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 time | nmod |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 sang | punct |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 sang | cc |
| 27 | sang | sing | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 asked | conj |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 played | cc |
| 29 | played | play | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 sang | conj |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 lute | det |
| 31 | lute | lute | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 played | obj |
| 32 | with | with | ADP | _ | 34 voice | case |
| 33 | charming | charming | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 voice | compound |
| 34 | voice | voice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 lute | nmod |
| 35 | in | in | ADP | _ | 39 stable | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 stable | det |
| 37 | elephant | elephant | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 stable | compound |
| 38 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 37 elephant | punct |
| 39 | stable | stable | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 played | obl |
| 40 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 27 sang | punct |
| 41 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 27 sang | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hear | gerund | king not said here | king | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus | ||||
| 2 | ask speech: ask | past | king | king's men | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent man=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 3 | is a in a quote | past | lute | Who nsubj | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | pray in a quote | infinitive | lute | vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot | |||||
| 5 | rise in a quote | past | that | night; time | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 6 | sing speech: express in a quote | past | king not said here | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 7 | play in a quote | past | king not said here | the lute | the elephant stable | with charming voice | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent lute=Theme with voice=Co-Agent |
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/pg74064/6/59/