---
title: As soon as he found himself on dry land the Monkey skipped off the T… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as he found himself on dry land the Monkey skipped off the Tortoise’s back as fast as he could, and climbed to the top of the tallest tree he could find in a twinkling. Who acts: Tortoise, Monkey. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of 
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey., sentence 34

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As soon as he found himself on dry land the Monkey skipped off the Tortoise’s back as fast as he could, and climbed to the top of the tallest tree he could find in a twinkling.

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**Who acts:** Tortoise, Monkey · **What happens:** find, skip, climb · **To what, where:** Tortoise, dry land, twinkling

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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, Monkey), 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:pg75000:21:34
# text = As soon as he found himself on dry land the Monkey skipped off the Tortoise’s back as fast as he could, and climbed to the top of the tallest tree he could find in a twinkling.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Monkey	Monkey	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	skipped	skip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	off	off	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’s	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	back	back	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	as	as	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	climbed	climb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	tallest	tall	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	32	amod	_	_
32	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	ccomp	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | Tortoise | Tortoise |  | dry land |  | soon *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Topic |
| 2 | **skip** | past | the Monkey |  |  | the Tortoise |  | fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme off tortoise=Trajectory |
| 3 | **climb** | past |  |  |  |  |  | to the top of the tallest tree | tree rules |
| 4 | **find** | could | Tortoise |  |  | a twinkling |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=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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