---
title: He was an amusing fellow and very fond of his joke, but was quite un… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: He was an amusing fellow and very fond of his joke, but was quite unreliable and incapable of performing any regular work. Who acts: Lama. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Lama’s Servant., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Lama’s Servant., sentence 4

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He was an amusing fellow and very fond of his joke, but was quite unreliable and incapable of performing any regular work.

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**Who acts:** Lama · **What happens:** be, perform, joke · **To what, where:** amusing fellow, regular work

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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 (Lama), 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:pg75000:19:4
# text = He was an amusing fellow and very fond of his joke, but was quite unreliable and incapable of performing any regular work.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	amusing	amusing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	unreliable	unreliable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	incapable	incapable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
19	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	performing	perform	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
21	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
22	regular	regular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Lama | a amusing fellow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | Lama *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of Lama's joke | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | unreliable *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **perform** | gerund |  | any regular work |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Theme |
| 6 | **joke** |  | Lama |  |  |  |  |  | nom joke «communication intransitive»: 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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