---
title: What we would suggest to you is that you should build a strong dam a… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: What we would suggest to you is that you should build a strong dam all down the river bank so as to ensure that the water cannot overflow into our nests. Who acts: we, you, water. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Country of the Mice., with its dep
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Country of the Mice., sentence 42

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What we would suggest to you is that you should build a strong dam all down the river bank so as to ensure that the water cannot overflow into our nests.

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**Who acts:** we, you, water · **What happens:** suggest, be, ensure, not overflow · **To what, where:** you, nests · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Country of the Mice.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, you, water), 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:pg75000:20:42
# text = What we would suggest to you is that you should build a strong dam all down the river bank so as to ensure that the water cannot overflow into our nests.
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	suggest	suggest	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	dam	dam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	all	all	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
16	down	down	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	ensure	ensure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	overflow	overflow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	_
30	into	into	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	nests	nest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **suggest** *speech: suggest* | would | we |  |  |  |  | What *obj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | should · present | you |  | you |  |  | a strong dam *obj*; build *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **ensure** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V that S»: agent=Precondition clause=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **overflow** | can | the water |  |  | our nests |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

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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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