---
title: When the King of Death was close by the perfect boy stopped playing,… — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: When the King of Death was close by the perfect boy stopped playing, and looked at him riding on the long, long back of his slow-moving grey-black buffalo. Who acts: King, perfect boy. A sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Opening, part
---

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# Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people, Opening, part 4, sentence 127

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When the King of Death was close by the perfect boy stopped playing, and looked at him riding on the long, long back of his slow-moving grey-black buffalo.

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**Who acts:** King, perfect boy · **What happens:** be, stop, play, look, ride, move · **To what, where:** long long back

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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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, perfect boy), 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:pg69647:4:128
# text = When the King of Death was close by the perfect boy stopped playing, and looked at him riding on the long, long back of his slow-moving grey-black buffalo.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Death	Death	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	perfect	perfect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	playing	play	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	riding	ride	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
22	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
28	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	moving	move	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	csubj	_	_
31	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the King of Death |  |  |  |  | close *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **stop** | past | the perfect boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **play** | gerund | the perfect boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **look** | past | the perfect boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at King | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |
| 5 | **ride** | gerund | the perfect boy *not said here* |  |  | the long long back of King's grey black buffalo |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **move** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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