---
title: And the great man saw the poor little baby lying alone on the grass,… — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the great man saw the poor little baby lying alone on the grass, and, as it seemed to belong to no one, he said he would take it for his own. Who acts: great man, poor little baby, it, journey. A sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, 
---

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# Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people, Opening, part 4, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the great man saw the poor little baby lying alone on the grass, and, as it seemed to belong to no one, he said he would take it for his own.

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**Who acts:** great man, poor little baby, it, journey · **What happens:** see, lie, seem, belong, say, take · **To what, where:** poor little baby, grass, one, baby · **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 (great man, poor little baby, it, journey), 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:pg69647:4:62
# text = And the great man saw the poor little baby lying alone on the grass, and, as it seemed to belong to no one, he said he would take it for his own.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
11	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	belong	belong	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	ccomp	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the great man | the poor little baby |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer baby=Stimulus |
| 2 | **lie** | gerund | the poor little baby *not said here* |  |  | the grass |  | alone *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on grass=Location |
| 3 | **seem** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **belong** | to-infinitive |  |  | no one |  |  |  | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | journey |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **take** | would | journey | baby |  |  |  | for journey's own | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent it=Theme for own=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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