---
title: He pretended to listen with the greatest attention to all the old ma… — Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat · tree and pragmatics
description: He pretended to listen with the greatest attention to all the old man’s words and seemed so eager to do what was right, that the sage thought the prince the most charming of pupils. Who acts: king, sage, old man. A sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, Makhdum Niamat Ullah a
---

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# Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat, Makhdum Niamat Ullah and Makhdum Nuh., sentence 217

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He pretended to listen with the greatest attention to all the old man’s words and seemed so eager to do what was right, that the sage thought the prince the most charming of pupils.

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**Who acts:** king, sage, old man · **What happens:** pretend, listen, seem, do, be, think · **To what, where:** prince

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, Makhdum Niamat Ullah and Makhdum Nuh.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, sage, old man), 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:pg76982:10:217
# text = He pretended to listen with the greatest attention to all the old man’s words and seemed so eager to do what was right, that the sage thought the prince the most charming of pupils.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	amod	_	_
8	attention	attention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	eager	eager	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	sage	sage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	34	advmod	_	_
34	charming	charming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	pupils	pupil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pretend** | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **listen** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the greatest attention; to the old man's words | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to word=Theme |
| 3 | **seem** | past | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | eager *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **do** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj*; right *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the sage | the prince |  |  |  | the charming of pupils *obj* | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent prince=Theme charming=Attribute |
| 7 | **word** |  | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=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 of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, Project Gutenberg book 76982 (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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