---
title: The chief minister was sitting in the bows straining his eyes trying… — Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat · tree and pragmatics
description: The chief minister was sitting in the bows straining his eyes trying to get a glimpse of the land. Who acts: chief minister, bows, eyes. A sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, The Eighth Key., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat, The Eighth Key., sentence 40

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The chief minister was sitting in the bows straining his eyes trying to get a glimpse of the land.

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**Who acts:** chief minister, bows, eyes · **What happens:** sit, strain, try, get, glimpse · **To what, where:** bows, eyes, glimpse, land

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, The Eighth Key.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chief minister, bows, eyes), 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:pg76982:11:40
# text = The chief minister was sitting in the bows straining his eyes trying to get a glimpse of the land.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	chief	chief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bows	bow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
9	straining	strain	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	trying	try	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	glimpse	glimpse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | the chief minister |  |  | the bows |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in bow=Location |
| 2 | **strain** | gerund | the bows *not said here* | minister's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent eye=Source |
| 3 | **try** | gerund | minister's eyes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **get** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | minister's eyes *not said here* | a glimpse of the land |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer glimpse=Stimulus |
| 5 | **glimpse** |  |  | the land |  |  |  |  | nom glimpse «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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