---
title: And twice he strove to speak, and twice he failed, while great tears… — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · tree and pragmatics
description: And twice he strove to speak, and twice he failed, while great tears fell from his eyes upon the ground. Who acts: Umra, great tears. A sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 5, 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 5, sentence 103

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And twice he strove to speak, and twice he failed, while great tears fell from his eyes upon the ground.

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**Who acts:** Umra, great tears · **What happens:** strive, speak, fail, fall · **To what, where:** eyes · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Umra, great tears), 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:pg68641:7:103
# text = And twice he strove to speak, and twice he failed, while great tears fell from his eyes upon the ground.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	strove	strive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	11	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	failed	fail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
20	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strive** | past | Umra |  |  |  |  | twice *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Umra *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **fail** | past | Umra |  |  |  |  | twice *property* | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fall** | past | great tears |  |  | Umra's eyes |  | upon the ground | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon ground=Location |

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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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