The grateful elephant, Opening, part 8, sentence 89
Similarly, if they captured mother and daughter, they would despatch the mother; if they captured an older and a younger brother, they would despatch the older; if they captured teacher and pupil, they would despatch the pupil.)
Who acts: Thieves · What happens: capture, despatch · To what, where: mother, older, teacher, pupil
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Thieves), 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 | Similarly | similarly | ADV | _ | 12 despatch | advmod |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Similarly | punct |
| 3 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 5 captured | mark |
| 4 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 captured | nsubj |
| 5 | captured | capture | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 despatch | advcl |
| 6 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 captured | obj |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 daughter | cc |
| 8 | daughter | daughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 mother | conj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 captured | punct |
| 10 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 despatch | nsubj |
| 11 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 12 despatch | aux |
| 12 | despatch | despatch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 mother | det |
| 14 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 despatch | obj |
| 15 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 18 captured | punct |
| 16 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 18 captured | mark |
| 17 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 captured | nsubj |
| 18 | captured | capture | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 despatch | parataxis |
| 19 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 older | det |
| 20 | older | old | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 18 captured | xcomp |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 brother | cc |
| 22 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 24 brother | det |
| 23 | younger | young | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 24 brother | amod |
| 24 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 older | conj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 despatch | punct |
| 26 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 despatch | nsubj |
| 27 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 28 despatch | aux |
| 28 | despatch | despatch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 captured | conj |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 older | det |
| 30 | older | old | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 28 despatch | obj |
| 31 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 34 captured | punct |
| 32 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 34 captured | mark |
| 33 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 captured | nsubj |
| 34 | captured | capture | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 despatch | parataxis |
| 35 | teacher | teacher | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 captured | obj |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 pupil | cc |
| 37 | pupil | pupil | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 teacher | conj |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 despatch | punct |
| 39 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 despatch | nsubj |
| 40 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 41 despatch | aux |
| 41 | despatch | despatch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 despatch | conj |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 pupil | det |
| 43 | pupil | pupil | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 despatch | obj |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 41 despatch | punct |
| 45 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 41 despatch | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | capture a condition, not said to happen | past | Thieves = thief | mother and daughter | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Theme | ||||
| 2 | despatch | would | Thieves = thief | the mother | similarly property | tree rules | |||
| 3 | capture a condition, not said to happen | past | Thieves = thief | old property | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | despatch | would | Thieves = thief | the older | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | capture a condition, not said to happen | past | Thieves = thief | teacher and pupil | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent teacher=Theme | ||||
| 6 | despatch | would | Thieves = thief | the pupil | tree rules |
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/pg74064/8/89/