---
title: The elder, quite astonished at this accident, fell to the ground, an… — Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth · tree and pragmatics
description: The elder, quite astonished at this accident, fell to the ground, and began to make many excuses, and to beg pardon for his former cruel behaviour. Who acts: elder. A sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Merchant and His Sons., with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth, The Merchant and His Sons., sentence 22

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The elder, quite astonished at this accident, fell to the ground, and began to make many excuses, and to beg pardon for his former cruel behaviour.

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**Who acts:** elder · **What happens:** fall, begin, make, beg · **To what, where:** many excuses, pardon

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This is a sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Merchant and His Sons.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (elder), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62868:2:22
# text = The elder, quite astonished at this accident, fell to the ground, and began to make many excuses, and to beg pardon for his former cruel behaviour.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	astonished	astonished	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	accident	accident	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	excuses	excuse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	beg	beg	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
25	pardon	pardon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
28	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
29	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | the elder |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the elder *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive | the elder *not said here* | many excuses |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset excuse=Product |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | to-infinitive | the elder *not said here* | pardon |  |  |  | for man's former cruel behaviour | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent pardon=Recipient for behaviour=Topic |

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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.

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**Text:** «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, Project Gutenberg book 62868 (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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