---
title: And in the old days men thought it not wrong to try and snatch away… — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: And in the old days men thought it not wrong to try and snatch away from others anything which they wished to possess--be this thing what it might, rich city or lovely lady or priceless jewel. Who acts: men. A sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/3/98/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Indian tales of the great ones among m…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/) / [Opening, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/3/) / 98

# Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people, Opening, part 3, sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And in the old days men thought it not wrong to try and snatch away from others anything which they wished to possess--be this thing what it might, rich city or lovely lady or priceless jewel.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** think, try, snatch away, wish, possess, be · **To what, where:** anything, thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (men), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg69647:3:98
# text = And in the old days men thought it not wrong to try and snatch away from others anything which they wished to possess--be this thing what it might, rich city or lovely lady or priceless jewel.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
6	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	ccomp	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	csubj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	snatch	snatch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
15	away	away	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	14	obl	_	_
19	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	possess	possess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
26	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	det	_	_
27	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
28	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	27	appos	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	appos	_	_
34	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	_
37	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	priceless	priceless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	jewel	jewel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | men |  |  |  | day |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **try** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **snatch away** | infinitive |  |  |  | anything  others |  | away *property* | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from anything=Source |
| 4 | **wish** | past |  |  |  |  |  | which *nsubj*; others *= other* *nsubj* | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **possess** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
| 6 | **is a** | infinitive |  | this thing |  |  |  | what *appos*; rich city or lovely lady or priceless jewel *appos* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/3/97/)
- next →: [sentence 99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/3/99/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/3/)