---
title: “Yes, I am a very handsome shell,” replied the cowrie, to the terror… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: “Yes, I am a very handsome shell,” replied the cowrie, to the terror and astonishment of the groom. Who acts: handsome shell. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of Room Bacha and Baki., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/22/90/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Room Bacha and Baki.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/22/) / 90

# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of Room Bacha and Baki., sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Yes, I am a very handsome shell,” replied the cowrie, to the terror and astonishment of the groom.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** handsome shell · **What happens:** be, reply, astonish · **To what, where:** handsome shell, cowrie, groom · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of Room Bacha and Baki.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (handsome shell), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:22:90
# text = “Yes, I am a very handsome shell,” replied the cowrie, to the terror and astonishment of the groom.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
5	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
12	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cowrie	cowrie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	parataxis	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	astonishment	astonishment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	groom	groom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | a handsome shell *= shell* | a handsome shell |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | a handsome shell | the cowrie |  |  |  | the terror and astonishment of the groom *parataxis* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent cowrie=Topic |
| 3 | **astonish** |  |  | the groom |  |  |  |  | nom astonishment «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/22/89/)
- next →: [sentence 91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/22/91/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Room Bacha and Baki.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/22/)