--- title: As they went across the lake the Tortoise began telling the Monkey a… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics description: As they went across the lake the Tortoise began telling the Monkey about his wife’s illness, and in doing so he foolishly let out that the only medicine to cure her was a Monkey’s heart. Who acts: Monkeys, Tortoise, only medicine. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, S --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/21/27/) [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 Tortoise and the Monk…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/21/) / 27 # Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey., sentence 27 As they went across the lake the Tortoise began telling the Monkey about his wife’s illness, and in doing so he foolishly let out that the only medicine to cure her was a Monkey’s heart. **Who acts:** Monkeys, Tortoise, only medicine · **What happens:** go, begin, tell, do, let out, cure · **To what, where:** lake, Monkey, friend, heart · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Monkeys, Tortoise, only medicine), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg75000:21:27 # text = As they went across the lake the Tortoise began telling the Monkey about his wife’s illness, and in doing so he foolishly let out that the only medicine to cure her was a Monkey’s heart. 1 As as SCONJ IN _ 3 mark _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 advcl _ _ 4 across across ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 lake lake NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obl _ _ 7 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 8 Tortoise Tortoise PROPN NNP Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ _ 9 began begin VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 10 telling tell VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 9 xcomp _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 Monkey monkey NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obj _ _ 13 about about ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 14 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 15 nmod:poss _ _ 15 wife wife NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 16 ’s 's PART POS _ 15 case _ _ 17 illness illness NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 19 and and CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 20 in in SCONJ IN _ 21 mark _ _ 21 doing do VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 25 advcl _ _ 22 so so ADV RB _ 21 advmod _ _ 23 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 24 foolishly foolishly ADV RB _ 25 advmod _ _ 25 let let VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 parataxis _ _ 26 out out ADP RP _ 25 compound:prt _ _ 27 that that SCONJ IN _ 38 mark _ _ 28 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 29 only only ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 30 amod _ _ 30 medicine medicine NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 nsubj _ _ 31 to to PART TO _ 32 mark _ _ 32 cure cure VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 30 acl _ _ 33 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 32 obj _ _ 34 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 38 cop _ _ 35 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 Monkey monkey NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 37 ’s 's PART POS _ 36 case _ _ 38 heart heart NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 39 . . PUNCT . _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **go** | past | Monkeys *= monkey* | | | the lake | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme across lake=Initial\_Location | | 2 | **begin** | past | the Tortoise | | | | | | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | the Tortoise *not said here* | | the Monkey | | | about Tortoise's wife's illness | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent monkey=Recipient about illness=Topic | | 4 | **do** | gerund | Tortoise *not said here* | | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **let out** | present | Tortoise | | | | | foolishly *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **cure** | to-infinitive | the only medicine *not said here* | friend | | | | | vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer she=Source | | 7 | **is a** | past | the only medicine | a Monkey's heart | | | | a Monkey *nmod:poss* | tree rules | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/21/26/) - next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/21/28/) - ↑ back to [The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/21/)