The grateful elephant, Opening, part 9, sentence 144
Indeed, why should it be necessary to discuss the injurious effect on human beings of contact with the corrupt, when in times past even a senseless mango tree, with flavor as sweet as the flavor of celestial fruit, through contact with sour, unpalatable nimbs, turned sour and bitter?”
Who acts: contact · What happens: be, discuss, turn, flavor · To what, where: injurious effect, human beings, celestial fruit
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (contact), 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 | Indeed | indeed | ADV | _ | 7 necessary | advmod |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Indeed | punct |
| 3 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 7 necessary | advmod |
| 4 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 necessary | aux |
| 5 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 necessary | expl |
| 6 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 7 necessary | cop |
| 7 | necessary | necessary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 8 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 discuss | mark |
| 9 | discuss | discuss | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 necessary | csubj |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 effect | det |
| 11 | injurious | injurious | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 effect | amod |
| 12 | effect | effect | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 discuss | obj |
| 13 | on | on | ADP | _ | 15 beings | case |
| 14 | human | human | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 beings | amod |
| 15 | beings | being | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 effect | nmod |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 contact | case |
| 17 | contact | contact | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 beings | nmod |
| 18 | with | with | ADP | _ | 20 corrupt | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 corrupt | det |
| 20 | corrupt | corrupt | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 contact | nmod |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 51 turned | punct |
| 22 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 51 turned | advmod |
| 23 | in | in | ADP | _ | 24 times | case |
| 24 | times | time | NOUN | Number=Plur | 51 turned | obl |
| 25 | past | past | ADP | _ | 30 tree | case |
| 26 | even | even | ADV | _ | 30 tree | advmod |
| 27 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 30 tree | det |
| 28 | senseless | senseless | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 tree | amod |
| 29 | mango | mango | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 tree | compound |
| 30 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 times | nmod |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 flavor | punct |
| 32 | with | with | ADP | _ | 33 flavor | case |
| 33 | flavor | flavor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 tree | conj |
| 34 | as | as | ADP | _ | 35 sweet | case |
| 35 | sweet | sweet | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 flavor | nmod |
| 36 | as | as | ADP | _ | 38 flavor | case |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 flavor | det |
| 38 | flavor | flavor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 sweet | obl |
| 39 | of | of | ADP | _ | 41 fruit | case |
| 40 | celestial | celestial | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 fruit | compound |
| 41 | fruit | fruit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 flavor | nmod |
| 42 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 44 contact | punct |
| 43 | through | through | ADP | _ | 44 contact | case |
| 44 | contact | contact | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 tree | conj |
| 45 | with | with | ADP | _ | 49 nimbs | case |
| 46 | sour | sour | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 49 nimbs | amod |
| 47 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 46 sour | punct |
| 48 | unpalatable | unpalatable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 49 nimbs | amod |
| 49 | nimbs | nimb | NOUN | Number=Plur | 44 contact | nmod |
| 50 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 times | punct |
| 51 | turned | turn | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 effect | acl:relcl |
| 52 | sour | sour | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 51 turned | xcomp |
| 53 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 54 bitter | cc |
| 54 | bitter | bitter | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 52 sour | conj |
| 55 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 7 necessary | punct |
| 56 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 necessary | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | should | indeed, necessary property | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | discuss speech: other | to-infinitive | the injurious effect | human beings of contact with the corrupt | vn chit_chat-37.6-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=Topic | ||||
| 3 | turn | past | time | sour property | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | be | contact with the corrupt | nom being «state intransitive»: of=agent | ||||||
| 5 | flavor | celestial fruit | nom flavor «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/pg74064/9/144/