---
title: Meanwhile Mrs. Tortoise was becoming rather anxious concerning her h… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: Meanwhile Mrs. Tortoise was becoming rather anxious concerning her husband’s prolonged absence. Who acts: Mrs. Tortoise, husband. 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 pragmatics o
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey., sentence 8

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Meanwhile Mrs. Tortoise was becoming rather anxious concerning her husband’s prolonged absence.

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**Who acts:** Mrs. Tortoise, husband · **What happens:** become, concern, prolong · **To what, where:** absence

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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 (Mrs. Tortoise, husband), 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:pg75000:21:8
# text = Meanwhile Mrs. Tortoise was becoming rather anxious concerning her husband’s prolonged absence.
1	Meanwhile	meanwhile	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	Mrs.	Mrs.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	becoming	become	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
8	concerning	concern	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	prolonged	prolong	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
13	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past · progressive | Mrs. Tortoise |  |  |  |  | anxious, meanwhile *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **concern** | gerund | Mrs. Tortoise *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **prolong** | past | friend's husband | absence |  |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent absence=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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