---
title: “If one should fly between him and the sun to protect him,” he said,… — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: “If one should fly between him and the sun to protect him,” he said, “it could be done.” Who acts: one, Sanpati. A sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people, Opening, part 1, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“If one should fly between him and the sun to protect him,” he said, “it could be done.”

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**Who acts:** one, Sanpati · **What happens:** fly, protect, say, do · **To what, where:** Sanpati, sun · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one, Sanpati), 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:pg69647:1:48
# text = “If one should fly between him and the sun to protect him,” he said, “it could be done.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	one	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
6	between	between	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	protect	protect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | should | one |  |  |  |  | between Sanpati | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme between he=Location |
| 2 | **protect** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | one *not said here* |  | Sanpati |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Sanpati |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | could · passive |  | sun |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |

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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:** «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Project Gutenberg book 69647 (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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