---
title: On reaching the top of the tree he began reviling the Tortoise, and… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: On reaching the top of the tree he began reviling the Tortoise, and calling out every bad name he could think of. Who acts: Tortoise. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey., with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey., sentence 35

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On reaching the top of the tree he began reviling the Tortoise, and calling out every bad name he could think of.

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**Who acts:** Tortoise · **What happens:** reach, begin, revile, call out, think · **To what, where:** top, Tortoise, bad name

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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), 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:pg75000:21:35
# text = On reaching the top of the tree he began reviling the Tortoise, and calling out every bad name he could think of.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	reaching	reach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	reviling	revile	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	xcomp	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	calling	call	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	xcomp	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
18	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	parataxis	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | gerund | Tortoise *not said here* | the top of the tree |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent top=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | Tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **revile** | gerund | Tortoise *not said here* | the Tortoise |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tortoise=Theme |
| 4 | **call out** *speech: assert* | gerund | Tortoise *not said here* | every bad name |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent name=Recipient |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | could | Tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: 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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