---
title: “Our weak and defenceless ones shall not,” they said, “fall into the… — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: “Our weak and defenceless ones shall not,” they said, “fall into the hands of a coward enemy.” Who acts: armies. A sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Opening, part 4, 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 4, sentence 5

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“Our weak and defenceless ones shall not,” they said, “fall into the hands of a coward enemy.”

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**Who acts:** armies · **What happens:** say, fall · **To what, where:** hands · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (armies), 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:pg69647:4:5
# text = “Our weak and defenceless ones shall not,” they said, “fall into the hands of a coward enemy.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
3	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	defenceless	defenceless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
6	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	coward	coward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | armies *= army* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **fall** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | into the hands of a coward enemy *result* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into hand=Result |

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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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