---
title: So saying, the Stranger seized upon the rich man’s house, his cattle… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: So saying, the Stranger seized upon the rich man’s house, his cattle, his sheep, his lands, and all his possessions, and reduced the rich man to the position of a slave in his household. Who acts: Stranger. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story o
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/5/35/)

<!-- 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 Two Neighbours.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/5/) / 35

# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Two Neighbours., sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So saying, the Stranger seized upon the rich man’s house, his cattle, his sheep, his lands, and all his possessions, and reduced the rich man to the position of a slave in his household.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Stranger · **What happens:** say, seize, reduce, possess · **To what, where:** cattle, rich man, position · **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 Two Neighbours.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Stranger), 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:pg75000:5:35
# text = So saying, the Stranger seized upon the rich man’s house, his cattle, his sheep, his lands, and all his possessions, and reduced the rich man to the position of a slave in his household.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	lands	land	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	26	det:predet	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	possessions	possession	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	reduced	reduce	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	position	position	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	household	household	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund |  | stranger's cattle and stranger's sheep and stranger's lands |  |  |  | stranger's possessions *obl* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **seize** | past | the Stranger |  |  |  |  | upon the rich man's house | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **reduce** | past |  | the rich man |  |  |  | to the position of a slave in stranger's household *goal* | vn limit-76 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Causer man=Patient to position=Goal |
| 4 | **possess** |  | stranger |  |  |  |  |  | nom possession «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/5/34/)
- next →: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/5/36/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of the Two Neighbours.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/5/)