---
title: And Shiva was silent, not knowing what to answer. — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Shiva was silent, not knowing what to answer. Who acts: Shiva. A sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Opening, part 5, 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 5, sentence 14

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And Shiva was silent, not knowing what to answer.

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**Who acts:** Shiva · **What happens:** be, not know, answer · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Shiva), 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:pg69647:5:14
# text = And Shiva was silent, not knowing what to answer.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	Shiva	Shiva	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Shiva |  |  |  |  | silent *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** | gerund | Shiva *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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