---
title: “Have you ever, Mother Gryphon,” asked the male bird, “seen any crea… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: “Have you ever, Mother Gryphon,” asked the male bird, “seen any creature of that description before?” Who acts: you, male bird. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head., sentence 68

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“Have you ever, Mother Gryphon,” asked the male bird, “seen any creature of that description before?”

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**Who acts:** you, male bird · **What happens:** have, ask, see · **To what, where:** Mother, creature · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you, male bird), 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:pg75000:16:68
# text = “Have you ever, Mother Gryphon,” asked the male bird, “seen any creature of that description before?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
4	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	Mother	Mother	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	Gryphon	Gryphon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	male	male	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	ccomp	_	_
17	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
18	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	description	description	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | present | you | Mother |  |  | ever |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Patient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the male bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **see** *in a quote* | participle |  | any creature of that description |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer creature=Stimulus |

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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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