---
title: The Boy promised to do so, and every day he used to sit and play abo… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: The Boy promised to do so, and every day he used to sit and play about at the mouth of the nest. Who acts: Boy. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Mouse’s Three Children., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Mouse’s Three Children., sentence 16

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The Boy promised to do so, and every day he used to sit and play about at the mouth of the nest.

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**Who acts:** Boy · **What happens:** promise, do, use, sit, play about · **To what, where:** mouth

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Mouse’s Three Children.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Boy), 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:pg75000:13:16
# text = The Boy promised to do so, and every day he used to sit and play about at the mouth of the nest.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
17	about	about	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | the Boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **use** | past | Boy |  |  |  | day |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **sit** | to-infinitive | Boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **play about** | infinitive | Boy *not said here* |  |  | the mouth of the nest |  | about *property* | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=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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