---
title: And the man and his wife were sorrowful; for to choose was not easy. — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the man and his wife were sorrowful; for to choose was not easy. Who acts: man. 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 90

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And the man and his wife were sorrowful; for to choose was not easy.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** be, choose, not be

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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 (man), 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:pg69647:4:91
# text = And the man and his wife were sorrowful; for to choose was not easy.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	sorrowful	sorrowful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	choose	choose	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the man and Shiva's wife |  |  |  |  | sorrowful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **choose** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |

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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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