---
title: All pearls look very much alike, and it would be impossible for us t… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: All pearls look very much alike, and it would be impossible for us to prove to you whence they came. Who acts: pearls, us. 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 73

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All pearls look very much alike, and it would be impossible for us to prove to you whence they came.

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**Who acts:** pearls, us · **What happens:** look, be, prove, come · **To what, where:** you

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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 (pearls, us), 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:pg75000:15:73
# text = All pearls look very much alike, and it would be impossible for us to prove to you whence they came.
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	pearls	pearl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	look	look	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	alike	alike	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	expl	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
12	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | present | all pearls |  |  |  |  | alike *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | would |  |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **prove** | to-infinitive | us |  | you |  |  |  | vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to you=Experiencer |
| 4 | **come** | past | pearls *= pearl* |  |  |  |  | whence *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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