---
title: Scarcely had the bundle touched the ground when it became transforme… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: Scarcely had the bundle touched the ground when it became transformed into three great wolves, who, leaping upon the goat, devoured it in an instant, and then fled away to the hills. Who acts: Scarcely, bundle, three great wolves. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, S
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Prince and the Ogre’s Castle., sentence 31

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Scarcely had the bundle touched the ground when it became transformed into three great wolves, who, leaping upon the goat, devoured it in an instant, and then fled away to the hills.

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**Who acts:** Scarcely, bundle, three great wolves · **What happens:** have, touch, become, transform, leap, devour · **To what, where:** ground, three great wolves, bundle, instant, hills

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Prince and the Ogre’s Castle.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scarcely, bundle, three great wolves), 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:pg75000:17:31
# text = Scarcely had the bundle touched the ground when it became transformed into three great wolves, who, leaping upon the goat, devoured it in an instant, and then fled away to the hills.
1	Scarcely	Scarcely	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	bundle	bundle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	transformed	transform	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	xcomp	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	leaping	leap	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
20	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	devoured	devour	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	advmod	_	_
32	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
33	away	away	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Scarcely |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **touch** | past | the bundle | the ground |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ground=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **become** | past | bundle |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **transform** | participle | bundle *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into three great wolves *result* | vn turn-26.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.result»: agent=Patient into wolf=Result |
| 5 | **leap** | gerund | three great wolves |  |  |  |  | upon the goat | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon goat=Trajectory |
| 6 | **devour** | past | the bundle *not said here* | bundle |  | a instant |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 7 | **flee away** | past | Scarcely *not said here* |  |  | the hills | then | away *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to hill=Initial\_Location |

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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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