---
title: The pictures are the maiden effort at book illustration of a Tibetan… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: The pictures are the maiden effort at book illustration of a Tibetan artist, resident at Gyantse, and are, I fear, somewhat weak in details, as owing to my absence from Gyantse during the time they were in progress I was unable personally to superintend their execution. Who acts: pictures, I, my. A 
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, Opening, sentence 33

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The pictures are the maiden effort at book illustration of a Tibetan artist, resident at Gyantse, and are, I fear, somewhat weak in details, as owing to my absence from Gyantse during the time they were in progress I was unable personally to superintend their execution.

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**Who acts:** pictures, I, my · **What happens:** be, owe, superintend, illustrate, absent, execute · **To what, where:** maiden effort, book illustration, Gyantse, progress, execution, Tibetan artist

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pictures, I, my), 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:pg75000:1:33
# text = The pictures are the maiden effort at book illustration of a Tibetan artist, resident at Gyantse, and are, I fear, somewhat weak in details, as owing to my absence from Gyantse during the time they were in progress I was unable personally to superintend their execution.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	pictures	picture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	effort	effort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	illustration	illustration	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	Tibetan	Tibetan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	artist	artist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	resident	resident	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Gyantse	Gyantse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	fear	fear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	somewhat	somewhat	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	parataxis	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	details	detail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
31	owing	owe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	conj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	from	from	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	Gyantse	Gyantse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
37	during	during	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	_
40	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
41	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	progress	progress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	parataxis	_	_
44	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
46	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	conj	_	_
47	personally	personally	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
48	to	to	PART	TO	_	49	mark	_	_
49	superintend	superintend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	xcomp	_	_
50	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	51	nmod:poss	_	_
51	execution	execution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the pictures | the maiden effort and resident at Gyantse |  | book illustration of a Tibetan artist |  | resident at Gyantse *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | fear *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **owe** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  | Gyantse |  | to my absence *goal* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to absence=Goal |
| 4 | **is** | past | pictures *= picture* |  |  | progress | time |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | personally, unable *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **superintend** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | pictures's execution |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent execution=Theme |
| 7 | **illustrate** |  |  | a Tibetan artist |  |  |  |  | nom illustration «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 8 | **absent** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom absence «state transitive»: poss=agent |
| 9 | **execute** |  | pictures *= picture* |  |  |  |  |  | nom execution «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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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