---
title: The hermit asks, as we might say, for _the source of the Nile_. — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · tree and pragmatics
description: The hermit asks, as we might say, for _the source of the Nile_. Who acts: hermit, we. A sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, A Sleep and a Dream., part 4, sentence 14

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The hermit asks, as we might say, for \_the source of the Nile\_.

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**Who acts:** hermit, we · **What happens:** ask, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hermit, we), 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:pg68641:6:14
# text = The hermit asks, as we might say, for _the source of the Nile_.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hermit	hermit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asks	ask	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	source	source	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Nile	Nile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | the hermit |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | might | we |  |  |  |  | the source of the Nile *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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:** «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, Project Gutenberg book 68641 (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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