---
title: Suddenly, to his surprise and alarm, the Lion opened its mouth, and… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly, to his surprise and alarm, the Lion opened its mouth, and asked him what he was doing there. Who acts: Lion, boy. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Stone Lion., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Stone Lion., sentence 19

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Suddenly, to his surprise and alarm, the Lion opened its mouth, and asked him what he was doing there.

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**Who acts:** Lion, boy · **What happens:** open, ask, do, surprise · **To what, where:** mouth, surprise, boy

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Stone Lion.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lion, boy), 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:pg75000:18:19
# text = Suddenly, to his surprise and alarm, the Lion opened its mouth, and asked him what he was doing there.
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	alarm	alarm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	21	obj	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
22	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the Lion | alarm's mouth | boy's surprise and alarm |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent mouth=Patient to surprise=Recipient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Lion *not said here* |  | boy |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 3 | **do** | past · progressive | boy |  |  | there |  | what *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **surprise** |  | boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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