The grateful elephant, Opening, part 9, sentence 151
One day he saluted the eldest ascetic, sat down on one side, and asked: “Reverend Sir, is there anything you need?”
Who acts: eldest, anything, you · What happens: salute, sit down, ask, be, need · To what, where: eldest ascetic, one side · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (eldest, anything, 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 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 day | nummod |
| 2 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 saluted | obl:unmarked |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 saluted | nsubj |
| 4 | saluted | salute | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 ascetic | det |
| 6 | eldest | eld | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 7 ascetic | amod |
| 7 | ascetic | ascetic | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 saluted | obj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 sat | punct |
| 9 | sat | sit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 saluted | parataxis |
| 10 | down | down | ADP | _ | 9 sat | compound:prt |
| 11 | on | on | ADP | _ | 13 side | case |
| 12 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 13 side | nummod |
| 13 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 sat | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 asked | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 asked | cc |
| 16 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 sat | conj |
| 17 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 20 Sir | punct |
| 18 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 Sir | punct |
| 19 | Reverend | Reverend | PROPN | Number=Sing | 20 Sir | compound |
| 20 | Sir | Sir | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 asked | vocative |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 is | punct |
| 22 | is | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 saluted | parataxis |
| 23 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 22 is | expl |
| 24 | anything | anything | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 22 is | nsubj |
| 25 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 26 need | nsubj |
| 26 | need | need | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 24 anything | acl:relcl |
| 27 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 22 is | punct |
| 28 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 22 is | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | salute | past | eldest = eld | the eldest ascetic | day | tree rules | |||
| 2 | sit down | past | one side | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on side=Location | |||||
| 3 | ask speech: ask | past | Reverend Sir vocative | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | be in a quote | present | anything | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | need in a quote | present | you | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot |
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/pg74064/9/151/