---
title: Fortunately for me, he hadn’t seen me, so I thought the best thing I… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: Fortunately for me, he hadn’t seen me, so I thought the best thing I could do was to make off as fast as I could, in order to avoid being eaten.” Who acts: Tiger, I, best thing. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Jackals and the Tiger., with its dep
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Jackals and the Tiger., sentence 24

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Fortunately for me, he hadn’t seen me, so I thought the best thing I could do was to make off as fast as I could, in order to avoid being eaten.”

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**Who acts:** Tiger, I, best thing · **What happens:** not see, think, do, be, avoid, eat · **To what, where:** me, best thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Jackals and the Tiger.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tiger, I, best thing), 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:pg75000:14:24
# text = Fortunately for me, he hadn’t seen me, so I thought the best thing I could do was to make off as fast as I could, in order to avoid being eaten.”
1	Fortunately	fortunately	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
2	for	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
23	off	off	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	as	as	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	33	mark	_	_
31	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	fixed	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
34	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	aux:pass	_	_
35	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **see** | past · perfect | Tiger | me |  |  |  | fortunately *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | could | I | the best thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | past | the best thing |  |  |  |  | fast, make *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **avoid** | to-infinitive | the best thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **eat** | gerund · passive | the best thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V» |

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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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