---
title: While he was thus reflecting, the air grew blacker, and a clap of th… — Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth · tree and pragmatics
description: While he was thus reflecting, the air grew blacker, and a clap of thunder broke his meditation. Who acts: Obidah, air, clap. A sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Story of Obidah., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth, The Story of Obidah., sentence 17

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While he was thus reflecting, the air grew blacker, and a clap of thunder broke his meditation.

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**Who acts:** Obidah, air, clap · **What happens:** reflect, grow, break, clap, meditate · **To what, where:** meditation, thunder

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This is a sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, The Story of Obidah.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Obidah, air, clap), 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:pg62868:21:17
# text = While he was thus reflecting, the air grew blacker, and a clap of thunder broke his meditation.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	reflecting	reflect	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	blacker	black	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	clap	clap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	thunder	thunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	meditation	meditation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reflect** | past · progressive | Obidah |  |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **grow** | past | the air |  |  |  |  | black *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | past | a clap of thunder | Obidah's meditation |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer meditation=Patient |
| 4 | **clap** |  |  | thunder |  |  |  |  | nom clap «event transitive»: of=patient |
| 5 | **meditate** |  | Obidah |  |  |  |  |  | nom meditation «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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