Folk tales from Tibet, The Sheep, the Lamb, the Wolf and the Hare., sentence 20

The fact is that last spring, as I and my Lamb were coming up this very road, we met an ugly-looking Wolf, who said he was going to eat us; but I begged him to spare our lives, explaining to him that we should both be much larger and fatter in the autumn, and that he would get much better value from us if he waited till then.

Who acts: fact, I, we, looking Wolf, Wolf · What happens: be, come up, meet, look, say, go · To what, where: last spring, road, looking Wolf, us, Wolf, lives · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Sheep, the Lamb, the Wolf and the Hare.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fact, I, we, looking Wolf), 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 fact	det
2	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 spring	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 spring	cop
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 spring	mark
5	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 spring	amod
6	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 coming	punct
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 coming	mark
9	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	14 coming	nsubj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 Lamb	cc
11	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 Lamb	nmod:poss
12	Lamb	lamb	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 I	conj
13	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 coming	aux
14	coming	come	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 spring	conj
15	up	up	ADV	_	14 coming	advmod
16	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	18 road	det
17	very	very	ADV	_	18 road	advmod
18	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 coming	obl:unmarked
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 met	punct
20	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	21 met	nsubj
21	met	meet	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 road	acl:relcl
22	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	26 Wolf	det
23	ugly	ugly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 looking	compound
24	-	-	PUNCT	_	23 ugly	punct
25	looking	look	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	26 Wolf	amod
26	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	Number=Sing	21 met	obj
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 said	punct
28	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	29 said	nsubj
29	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 Wolf	advcl:relcl
30	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 going	nsubj
31	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	32 going	aux
32	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	29 said	ccomp
33	to	to	PART	_	34 eat	mark
34	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	32 going	xcomp
35	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	34 eat	obj
36	;	;	PUNCT	_	39 begged	punct
37	but	but	CCONJ	_	39 begged	cc
38	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	39 begged	nsubj
39	begged	beg	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 spring	conj
40	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 begged	obj
41	to	to	PART	_	42 spare	mark
42	spare	spare	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	39 begged	xcomp
43	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	44 lives	nmod:poss
44	lives	life	NOUN	Number=Plur	42 spare	obj
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 explaining	punct
46	explaining	explain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	42 spare	advcl
47	to	to	ADP	_	48 him	case
48	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	46 explaining	obl
49	that	that	SCONJ	_	55 larger	mark
50	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	55 larger	nsubj
51	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	55 larger	aux
52	both	both	ADV	_	55 larger	advmod
53	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	55 larger	cop
54	much	much	ADV	_	55 larger	advmod
55	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	46 explaining	advcl
56	and	and	CCONJ	_	57 fatter	cc
57	fatter	fat	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	55 larger	conj
58	in	in	ADP	_	60 autumn	case
59	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	60 autumn	det
60	autumn	autumn	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 fatter	obl
61	,	,	PUNCT	_	66 get	punct
62	and	and	CCONJ	_	66 get	cc
63	that	that	SCONJ	_	66 get	mark
64	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	66 get	nsubj
65	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	66 get	aux
66	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	39 begged	conj
67	much	much	ADV	_	68 better	advmod
68	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	69 value	amod
69	value	value	NOUN	Number=Sing	66 get	obj
70	from	from	ADP	_	71 us	case
71	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	66 get	obl
72	if	if	SCONJ	_	74 waited	mark
73	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	74 waited	nsubj
74	waited	wait	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	66 get	advcl
75	till	till	ADP	_	76 then	case
76	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	74 waited	obl
77	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 spring	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the fact	last spring				tree rules
2	come up	past · progressive	I	this road				vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	meet	past	we	a looking Wolf				vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wolf=Co-Agent
4	look	gerund						vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus
5	say speech: assert	past	a looking Wolf					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
6	go	past · progressive	Wolf					vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
7	eat	to-infinitive	Wolf not said here	us				vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient
8	beg speech: request	past	I		Wolf			vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
9	spare not said to happen	to-infinitive	I not said here	our lives				vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent life=Asset
10	explain speech: assert	gerund	I not said here		Wolf			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient
11	is	should	we				both, large property	tree rules
12	be		we not said here			autumn		tree rules
13	get	would	Wolf	better value			from us	vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent value=Theme from we=Source
14	wait a condition, not said to happen	past	Wolf					vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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: «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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/pg75000/11/20/

🌲 Folk tales from Tibet, The Sheep, the Lamb, the Wolf and the Hare., sentence 20

The tree

Pragmatics

Folk tales from Tibet, The Sheep, the Lamb, the Wolf and the Hare., sentence 20