---
title: The more the sheep struggled below the more the Lama pulled above, a… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: The more the sheep struggled below the more the Lama pulled above, and at last, when the tug-of-war had lasted for some minutes, the sheep was strangled by the slip-knot round its neck. Who acts: sheep, Lama, slip knot. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/19/20/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Lama’s Servant.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/19/) / 20

# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Lama’s Servant., sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The more the sheep struggled below the more the Lama pulled above, and at last, when the tug-of-war had lasted for some minutes, the sheep was strangled by the slip-knot round its neck.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sheep, Lama, slip knot · **What happens:** struggle, pull, last, strangle, tug · **To what, where:** tug, sheep, war

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Lama’s Servant.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sheep, Lama, slip knot), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:19:20
# text = The more the sheep struggled below the more the Lama pulled above, and at last, when the tug-of-war had lasted for some minutes, the sheep was strangled by the slip-knot round its neck.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	struggled	struggle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	below	below	ADP	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	11	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Lama	Lama	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
12	above	above	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
18	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	26	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	tug	tug	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	lasted	last	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
29	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	strangled	strangle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
35	by	by	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
37	slip	slip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	knot	knot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
40	round	round	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **struggle** | past | the sheep |  |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **pull** | past | the Lama |  |  |  |  | above *property* | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **last** | past · perfect · passive |  | the tug of war |  |  | minute |  | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: subject=Value |
| 4 | **strangle** | past · passive | the slip knot | the sheep |  |  |  | round tug's neck | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 5 | **tug** |  |  | war |  |  |  |  | nom tug «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/19/19/)
- next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/19/21/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of the Lama’s Servant.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/19/)