---
title: These men, owing to their skill and cunning, were quite at the head… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: These men, owing to their skill and cunning, were quite at the head of their profession, and by sleight of hand and dexterity were able to accomplish feats of trickery which the ordinary thieves could not emulate. Who acts: men, ordinary thieves. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Fred
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Three Thieves., sentence 2

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These men, owing to their skill and cunning, were quite at the head of their profession, and by sleight of hand and dexterity were able to accomplish feats of trickery which the ordinary thieves could not emulate.

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**Who acts:** men, ordinary thieves · **What happens:** owe, be, accomplish, not emulate · **To what, where:** skill, head, feats

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Three Thieves.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, ordinary thieves), 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:pg75000:15:2
# text = These men, owing to their skill and cunning, were quite at the head of their profession, and by sleight of hand and dexterity were able to accomplish feats of trickery which the ordinary thieves could not emulate.
1	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	owing	owe	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	cunning	cunning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
12	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	profession	profession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	sleight	sleight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	dexterity	dexterity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	accomplish	accomplish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	feats	feat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	trickery	trickery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
34	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	40	obj	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	_
38	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
39	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
40	emulate	emulate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **owe** | gerund | this men *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to men's skill and cunning *goal* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to skill=Goal |
| 2 | **is** | past | this men |  |  | the head |  | of men's profession | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | this men *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by sleight of hand and dexterity; able *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **accomplish** | to-infinitive | this men *not said here* | feats of trickery |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feat=Eventuality |
| 5 | **not** **emulate** | could | the ordinary thieves | feats of trickery |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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