---
title: The Thieves bowed themselves humbly before the Emperor, and without… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: The Thieves bowed themselves humbly before the Emperor, and without making any reply each one produced a pearl and laid it on the steps of the throne. Who acts: Thieves. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Three Thieves., with its depend
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Three Thieves., sentence 87

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The Thieves bowed themselves humbly before the Emperor, and without making any reply each one produced a pearl and laid it on the steps of the throne.

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**Who acts:** Thieves · **What happens:** bow, make, produce, lay, step · **To what, where:** Thieves, reply, pearl, throne

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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 (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:pg75000:15:87
# text = The Thieves bowed themselves humbly before the Emperor, and without making any reply each one produced a pearl and laid it on the steps of the throne.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	humbly	humbly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	before	before	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
13	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
16	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	xcomp	_	_
17	produced	produce	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	pearl	pearl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	throne	throne	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bow** | past | the Thieves | Thieves *= thief* |  |  | before the Emperor | humbly *property* | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Topic |
| 2 | **make** | gerund |  | any reply |  |  |  | each one *xcomp* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset reply=Product |
| 3 | **produce** | past |  | a pearl |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pearl=Result |
| 4 | **lay** | past |  | reply |  |  |  | on the steps of the throne | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme on step=Destination |
| 5 | **step** |  |  | the throne |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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