---
title: Success could not spoil him, and defeat could not make him hang his… — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Success could not spoil him, and defeat could not make him hang his head. Who acts: Success, defeat, thing. A sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Opening, part 3, 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 3, sentence 29

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Success could not spoil him, and defeat could not make him hang his head.

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**Who acts:** Success, defeat, thing · **What happens:** not spoil, not make, not hang · **To what, where:** thing, head

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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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Success, defeat, thing), 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:pg69647:3:29
# text = Success could not spoil him, and defeat could not make him hang his head.
1	Success	success	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	spoil	spoil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	defeat	defeat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	hang	hang	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **spoil** | could | Success | thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **make** | could | defeat | thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **hang** | infinitive | thing *not said here* | thing's head |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |

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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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