---
title: One day it chanced that he drove his cows to graze on the rich pastu… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: One day it chanced that he drove his cows to graze on the rich pasture on the edge of a small lake, and as he was sitting near the shore of the lake all of a sudden he saw a large white Drake descend from the sky, and light upon the surface of the water. Who acts: age, child, all, large white Drake.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/5/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Folk tales from Tibet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/) / [The Story of the Boy With the Deformed…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/) / 5

# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head., sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day it chanced that he drove his cows to graze on the rich pasture on the edge of a small lake, and as he was sitting near the shore of the lake all of a sudden he saw a large white Drake descend from the sky, and light upon the surface of the water.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** age, child, all, large white Drake · **What happens:** chance, drive, graze, sit, see, descend · **To what, where:** cows, shore, light, sky · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (age, child, all, large white Drake), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:16:5
# text = One day it chanced that he drove his cows to graze on the rich pasture on the edge of a small lake, and as he was sitting near the shore of the lake all of a sudden he saw a large white Drake descend from the sky, and light upon the surface of the water.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	chanced	chance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	drove	drive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	graze	graze	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	pasture	pasture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
29	near	near	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
35	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	40	nsubj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	sudden	sudden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	nmod	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
42	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
43	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	Drake	Drake	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
45	descend	descend	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	40	ccomp	_	_
46	from	from	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	_
52	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nmod	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
56	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
57	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chance** | past | age |  |  |  | day |  | vn risk-94-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **drive** | past | child | child's cows |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Theme |
| 3 | **graze** | to-infinitive | child *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on the rich pasture on the edge of a small lake | vn dine-39.5 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent on pasture=Patient |
| 4 | **sit** | past · progressive | child |  |  | the shore of the lake |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near shore=Location |
| 5 | **see** | past | all of a sudden | light upon the surface of the water |  |  |  | child *nsubj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **descend** | present | a large white Drake |  |  | the sky |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from sky=Location |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/4/)
- next →: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/6/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/)