---
title: But one old man, who wrote the longest tale of her gifts and virtues… — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: But one old man, who wrote the longest tale of her gifts and virtues, tells us the reason of her failure to rule India: “She was a great monarch; but she was a woman, and she ruled as a man.” Who acts: one old man, Delhi, gifts. A sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bir
---

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# Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people, Opening, part 3, sentence 8

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But one old man, who wrote the longest tale of her gifts and virtues, tells us the reason of her failure to rule India: “She was a great monarch; but she was a woman, and she ruled as a man.”

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**Who acts:** one old man, Delhi, gifts · **What happens:** write, tell, rule, be, gift, fail · **To what, where:** longest tale, reason, us, India, great monarch, woman · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one old man, Delhi, gifts), 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:pg69647:3:8
# text = But one old man, who wrote the longest tale of her gifts and virtues, tells us the reason of her failure to rule India: “She was a great monarch; but she was a woman, and she ruled as a man.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	wrote	write	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	longest	long	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	amod	_	_
10	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	gifts	gift	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	virtues	virtue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
17	tells	tell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	failure	failure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	rule	rule	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl	_	_
26	India	India	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
28	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	monarch	monarch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
43	ruled	rule	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
44	as	as	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	43	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | past | one old man | the longest tale of Delhi's gifts and virtues |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tale=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | one old man | the reason of Delhi's failure | us |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **rule** | to-infinitive | one old man *not said here* | India |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent india=Result |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | Delhi | a great monarch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | Delhi | a woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **rule** *in a quote* | past | Delhi |  |  |  |  | as a man | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **tell** |  | Delhi's gifts and virtues |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=agent |
| 8 | **gift** |  | Delhi |  |  |  |  |  | nom gift «possession transitive»: poss=agent |
| 9 | **fail** |  | Delhi |  |  |  |  |  | nom failure «act intransitive»: poss=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:** «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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