Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Three Thieves., sentence 11
“Yes,” said the second Thief; “I am able to cut the soles off a man’s boots as he walks across the road without his being aware of what has happened.
Who acts: second Thief, line · What happens: say, be, cut, walk, happen · To what, where: soles, road · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Three Thieves.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (second Thief, line), 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 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 said | punct |
| 2 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 5 said | discourse |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 Yes | punct |
| 4 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 Yes | punct |
| 5 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 Thief | det |
| 7 | second | second | ADJ | Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 8 Thief | amod |
| 8 | Thief | thief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 said | obj |
| 9 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 13 able | punct |
| 10 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 able | punct |
| 11 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 13 able | nsubj |
| 12 | am | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 13 able | cop |
| 13 | able | able | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 said | ccomp |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 cut | mark |
| 15 | cut | cut | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 able | xcomp |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 soles | det |
| 17 | soles | sole | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 cut | obj |
| 18 | off | off | ADP | _ | 22 boots | case |
| 19 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 man | det |
| 20 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 boots | nmod:poss |
| 21 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 20 man | case |
| 22 | boots | boot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 cut | obl |
| 23 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 25 walks | mark |
| 24 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 walks | nsubj |
| 25 | walks | walk | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 cut | advcl |
| 26 | across | across | ADP | _ | 28 road | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 road | det |
| 28 | road | road | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 walks | obl |
| 29 | without | without | SCONJ | _ | 32 aware | mark |
| 30 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 aware | nmod:poss |
| 31 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 32 aware | cop |
| 32 | aware | aware | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 walks | advcl |
| 33 | of | of | ADP | _ | 34 what | case |
| 34 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Rel | 32 aware | obl |
| 35 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 36 happened | aux |
| 36 | happened | happen | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 34 what | acl:relcl |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | the second Thief | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | is in a quote | present | the second Thief = thief | able property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | cut in a quote | to-infinitive | the second Thief = thief not said here | the soles | off a man's boots | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent sole=Patient off boot=Co-Patient | |||
| 4 | walk in a quote | present | line | the road | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across road=Trajectory | ||||
| 5 | is in a quote | gerund | line not said here | line nmod:poss; what obl; aware property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | happen in a quote | present · perfect | vn occur-48.3-1 «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.
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