---
title: “What, after all,” thought he to himself, “can be this creature Man… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: “What, after all,” thought he to himself, “can be this creature Man that I should not slay him if I wish. Who acts: I. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Tiger and the Man., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/3/12/)

<!-- 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 the Tiger and the Man.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/3/) / 12

# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Tiger and the Man., sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“What, after all,” thought he to himself, “can be this creature Man that I should not slay him if I wish.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** think, be, not slay, wish · **To what, where:** neighbourhood, creature Man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Tiger and the Man.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg75000:3:12
# text = “What, after all,” thought he to himself, “can be this creature Man that I should not slay him if I wish.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	after	after	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
17	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	obj	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl:relcl	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | neighbourhood | neighbourhood |  | after all | What *obj* | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent what=Theme he=Attribute |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | can |  | this creature Man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **slay** *in a quote* | should | I | this creature Man |  |  |  | neighbourhood *obj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **wish** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/3/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/3/13/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of the Tiger and the Man.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/3/)