---
title: The Tortoise thought that this was a good idea, and agreed to carry… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: The Tortoise thought that this was a good idea, and agreed to carry the Monkey back to the shore and await him there while he went off to fetch some other Monkeys. Who acts: Tortoise, this. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Tortoise an
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey., sentence 32

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The Tortoise thought that this was a good idea, and agreed to carry the Monkey back to the shore and await him there while he went off to fetch some other Monkeys.

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**Who acts:** Tortoise, this · **What happens:** think, be, agree, carry back, await, go off · **To what, where:** good idea, Monkey, shore, Tortoise, other Monkeys · **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 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 (Tortoise, this), 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:pg75000:21:32
# text = The Tortoise thought that this was a good idea, and agreed to carry the Monkey back to the shore and await him there while he went off to fetch some other Monkeys.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	agreed	agree	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Monkey	monkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	back	back	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	await	await	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
25	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
28	off	off	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
31	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	33	det	_	_
32	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	Monkeys	monkey	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the Tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | this | a good idea |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **carry back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | the Monkey |  | the shore |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent monkey=Theme to shore=Destination |
| 5 | **await** | infinitive |  | Tortoise |  | there |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **go off** | past | Tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **fetch** | to-infinitive | Tortoise *not said here* | some other Monkeys |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent monkey=Theme |

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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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