---
title: "Verily the tortoise killed himself Whilst uttering his voice; Thoug… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Verily the tortoise killed himself Whilst uttering his voice; Though he was holding tight the stick, By a word himself he slew. Who acts: tortoise. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/70/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Indian Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/) / [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/) / 70

# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11, sentence 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Verily the tortoise killed himself Whilst uttering his voice; Though he was holding tight the stick, By a word himself he slew.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tortoise · **What happens:** kill, utter, hold, slay · **To what, where:** Tortoise, voice, stick, word

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tortoise), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg7128:17:70
# text = "Verily the tortoise killed himself Whilst uttering his voice; Though he was holding tight the stick, By a word himself he slew.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Verily	verily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obj	_	_
7	Whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	uttering	utter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	Though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
16	tight	tight	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	By	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
23	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	22	appos	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	slew	slay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** *in a quote* | past | the tortoise | Tortoise |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 2 | **utter** *speech: other* *in a quote* | gerund | the tortoise *not said here* | Tortoise's voice |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent voice=Topic |
| 3 | **hold** *in a quote* | past · progressive | Tortoise | the stick |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme word=Eventuality |
| 4 | **slay** *in a quote* | past | Tortoise | a word *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/69/)
- next →: [sentence 71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/71/)
- ↑ back to [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/17/)