---
title: On hearing this the Lion was so tickled that he could not refrain fr… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: On hearing this the Lion was so tickled that he could not refrain from laughing. Who acts: Lion. 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 61

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On hearing this the Lion was so tickled that he could not refrain from laughing.

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**Who acts:** Lion · **What happens:** hear, tickle, not refrain, laugh · **To what, where:** this

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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), 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:pg75000:18:61
# text = On hearing this the Lion was so tickled that he could not refrain from laughing.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	tickled	tickle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	refrain	refrain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
14	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
15	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | gerund |  | this |  |  |  | the Lion *obj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tickle** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn tingle-40.8.2 «NP V» |
| 3 | **not** **refrain** | could | Lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn refrain-69 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **laugh** | gerund | Lion *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=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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