--- title: The Boy was greatly distressed on hearing this, for he did not think… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics description: The Boy was greatly distressed on hearing this, for he did not think it possible that the little Mouse could compete successfully with the King’s great Elephant; so he went home very sadly and told his mother the whole story. Who acts: Boy, little Mouse. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by Will --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/13/71/) [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/) / [Folk tales from Tibet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/) / [The Mouse’s Three Children.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/13/) / 71 # Folk tales from Tibet, The Mouse’s Three Children., sentence 71 The Boy was greatly distressed on hearing this, for he did not think it possible that the little Mouse could compete successfully with the King’s great Elephant; so he went home very sadly and told his mother the whole story. **Who acts:** Boy, little Mouse · **What happens:** distress, hear, not think, compete, go, tell · **To what, where:** Boy, this, slave, whole story, mother · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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, little Mouse), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg75000:13:71 # text = The Boy was greatly distressed on hearing this, for he did not think it possible that the little Mouse could compete successfully with the King’s great Elephant; so he went home very sadly and told his mother the whole story. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 Boy Boy PROPN NNP Number=Sing 5 nsubj _ _ 3 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 aux:pass _ _ 4 greatly greatly ADV RB _ 5 advmod _ _ 5 distressed distress VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 6 on on SCONJ IN _ 7 mark _ _ 7 hearing hear VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 5 advcl _ _ 8 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 7 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 10 for for SCONJ IN _ 14 mark _ _ 11 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 nsubj _ _ 12 did do AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 aux _ _ 13 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 14 advmod _ _ 14 think think VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 5 conj _ _ 15 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 obj _ _ 16 possible possible ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 xcomp _ _ 17 that that SCONJ IN _ 22 mark _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 19 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 20 amod _ _ 20 Mouse mouse NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nsubj _ _ 21 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 22 aux _ _ 22 compete compete VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 16 advcl _ _ 23 successfully successfully ADV RB _ 22 advmod _ _ 24 with with ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 25 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 26 King King PROPN NNP Number=Sing 29 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 27 ’s 's PART POS _ 26 case _ _ 28 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 29 amod _ _ 29 Elephant Elephant PROPN NNP Number=Sing 22 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 30 ; ; PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 31 so so ADV RB _ 33 advmod _ _ 32 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 nsubj _ _ 33 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 parataxis _ _ 34 home home ADV RB _ 33 advmod _ _ 35 very very ADV RB _ 36 advmod _ _ 36 sadly sadly ADV RB _ 33 advmod _ _ 37 and and CCONJ CC _ 38 cc _ _ 38 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 33 conj _ _ 39 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 40 nmod:poss _ _ 40 mother mother NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 iobj _ _ 41 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 42 whole whole ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 43 amod _ _ 43 story story NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **distress** | past · passive | | the Boy | | | | greatly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer | | 2 | **hear** | gerund | | this | | | | | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus | | 3 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | past · do-support | Boy | slave | | | | possible *property* | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot it=Theme | | 4 | **compete** | could | the little Mouse | | | | | with the King's great Elephant; successfully *property* | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with elephant=Co-Agent | | 5 | **go** | past | Boy | | | | | home, sadly *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Boy *not said here* | the whole story | King's mother | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent mother=Recipient story=Topic | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/13/70/) - next →: [sentence 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/13/72/) - ↑ back to [The Mouse’s Three Children.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/13/)