---
title: It was no use for the wretched man to protest his innocence or to pl… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: It was no use for the wretched man to protest his innocence or to plead for mercy. Who acts: Minister. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Three Thieves., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Three Thieves., sentence 29

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It was no use for the wretched man to protest his innocence or to plead for mercy.

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**Who acts:** Minister · **What happens:** be, protest, plead · **To what, where:** use, innocence

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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 (Minister), 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:pg75000:15:29
# text = It was no use for the wretched man to protest his innocence or to plead for mercy.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	protest	protest	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	innocence	innocence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	plead	plead	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Minister | no use |  |  |  | for the wretched man | tree rules |
| 2 | **protest** *speech: disagree* | to-infinitive | Minister *not said here* | Emperor's innocence |  |  |  |  | vn rebel-71.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent innocence=Topic |
| 3 | **plead** *speech: request* | to-infinitive | Minister *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for mercy | 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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