Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Three Thieves., sentence 2
These men, owing to their skill and cunning, were quite at the head of their profession, and by sleight of hand and dexterity were able to accomplish feats of trickery which the ordinary thieves could not emulate.
Who acts: men, ordinary thieves · What happens: owe, be, accomplish, not emulate · To what, where: skill, head, feats
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 (men, ordinary 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 | These | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 2 men | det |
| 2 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 head | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 owing | punct |
| 4 | owing | owe | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 2 men | acl |
| 5 | to | to | ADP | _ | 7 skill | case |
| 6 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 skill | nmod:poss |
| 7 | skill | skill | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 owing | obl |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 cunning | cc |
| 9 | cunning | cunning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 skill | conj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 men | punct |
| 11 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 head | cop |
| 12 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 15 head | advmod |
| 13 | at | at | ADP | _ | 15 head | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 head | det |
| 15 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 profession | case |
| 17 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 profession | nmod:poss |
| 18 | profession | profession | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 head | nmod |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 able | punct |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 able | cc |
| 21 | by | by | ADP | _ | 22 sleight | case |
| 22 | sleight | sleight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 able | obl |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 24 hand | case |
| 24 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 sleight | nmod |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 dexterity | cc |
| 26 | dexterity | dexterity | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 hand | conj |
| 27 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 able | cop |
| 28 | able | able | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 head | conj |
| 29 | to | to | PART | _ | 30 accomplish | mark |
| 30 | accomplish | accomplish | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 28 able | xcomp |
| 31 | feats | feat | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 accomplish | obj |
| 32 | of | of | ADP | _ | 33 trickery | case |
| 33 | trickery | trickery | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 feats | nmod |
| 34 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 40 emulate | obj |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 thieves | det |
| 36 | ordinary | ordinary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 thieves | amod |
| 37 | thieves | thief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 emulate | nsubj |
| 38 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 40 emulate | aux |
| 39 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 40 emulate | advmod |
| 40 | emulate | emulate | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 feats | acl:relcl |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 15 head | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | owe | gerund | this men not said here | to men's skill and cunning goal | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to skill=Goal | ||||
| 2 | is | past | this men | the head | of men's profession | tree rules | |||
| 3 | is | past | this men not said here | by sleight of hand and dexterity; able property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | accomplish | to-infinitive | this men not said here | feats of trickery | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feat=Eventuality | ||||
| 5 | not emulate | could | the ordinary thieves | feats of trickery | 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: «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/pg75000/15/2/