--- title: At first he was unable to detect what sort of birds these were, but… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics description: At first he was unable to detect what sort of birds these were, but after examining them attentively for some time he saw that they were three young Gryphons, whose parents apparently had gone off in search of food. Who acts: word, sort, daughters. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Fr --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/61/) [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/) / 61 # Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head., sentence 61 At first he was unable to detect what sort of birds these were, but after examining them attentively for some time he saw that they were three young Gryphons, whose parents apparently had gone off in search of food. **Who acts:** word, sort, daughters · **What happens:** be, detect, examine, see, go off, sort · **To what, where:** daughters, three young Gryphons, search, birds, food · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (word, sort, daughters), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg75000:16:61 # text = At first he was unable to detect what sort of birds these were, but after examining them attentively for some time he saw that they were three young Gryphons, whose parents apparently had gone off in search of food. 1 At at ADP IN _ 2 case _ _ 2 first first ADV RB NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 5 obl _ _ 3 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 4 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _ 5 unable unable ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 6 to to PART TO _ 7 mark _ _ 7 detect detect VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 5 xcomp _ _ 8 what what DET WDT PronType=Int 9 det _ _ 9 sort sort NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 nsubj _ _ 10 of of ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 11 birds bird NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 nmod _ _ 12 these this PRON DT Number=Plur|PronType=Dem 9 nmod _ _ 13 were be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 14 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 15 but but CCONJ CC _ 24 cc _ _ 16 after after SCONJ IN _ 17 mark _ _ 17 examining examine VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 24 advcl _ _ 18 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 17 obj _ _ 19 attentively attentively ADV RB _ 17 advmod _ _ 20 for for ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 21 some some DET DT PronType=Ind 22 det _ _ 22 time time NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obl _ _ 23 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 24 nsubj _ _ 24 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ _ 25 that that SCONJ IN _ 36 mark _ _ 26 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 30 nsubj _ _ 27 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 30 cop _ _ 28 three three NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 30 nummod _ _ 29 young young ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 30 amod _ _ 30 Gryphons gryphon NOUN NNS Number=Plur 36 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 32 whose whose PRON WP$ Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel 33 nmod:poss _ _ 33 parents parent NOUN NNS Number=Plur 30 conj _ _ 34 apparently apparently ADV RB _ 36 advmod _ _ 35 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 aux _ _ 36 gone go VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 24 ccomp _ _ 37 off off ADP RP _ 36 compound:prt _ _ 38 in in ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 39 search search NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obl _ _ 40 of of ADP IN _ 41 case _ _ 41 food food NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 42 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | word | | | | | unable *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **detect** | to-infinitive | word *not said here* | | | | | | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 3 | **be** | past | what sort of birds these | | | | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **examine** | gerund | word *not said here* | daughters *= daughter* | | | | attentively *property* | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | | 5 | **see** | past | word | | | | time | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 6 | **is a** | past | daughters *= daughter* | three young Gryphons and three young Gryphons and three young Gryphons's parents's parents | | | | three young Gryphons and three young Gryphons and parents's parents's parents *conj* | tree rules | | 7 | **go off** | past · perfect | | | | search of food | | apparently *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in search=Location | | 8 | **sort** | | | birds | | | | | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient | | 9 | **search** | | | food | | | | | nom search «act transitive»: of=patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/60/) - next →: [sentence 62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/62/) - ↑ back to [The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/)