---
title: Many years of wandering were before him. — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Many years of wandering were before him. Who acts: Many years. 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 33

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Many years of wandering were before him.

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**Who acts:** Many years · **What happens:** wonder, be

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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 (Many years), 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:pg69647:3:33
# text = Many years of wandering were before him.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
4	wandering	wonder	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	before	before	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | gerund | Many years *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | Many years |  |  |  | before defeat |  | tree rules |

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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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