---
title: Now among the old man’s many accomplishments was the power to unders… — Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat · tree and pragmatics
description: Now among the old man’s many accomplishments was the power to understand the speech of birds. Who acts: old man. 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 41

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Now among the old man’s many accomplishments was the power to understand the speech of birds.

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**Who acts:** old man · **What happens:** be, understand, accomplish, speak · **To what, where:** power, speech, birds · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (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:pg76982:11:41
# text = Now among the old man’s many accomplishments was the power to understand the speech of birds.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
2	among	among	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	accomplishments	accomplishment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the power |  |  | now | among the old man's many accomplishments | tree rules |
| 2 | **understand** | to-infinitive |  | the speech of birds |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer speech=Stimulus |
| 3 | **accomplish** |  | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | nom accomplishment «act transitive»: poss=agent |
| 4 | **speak** |  |  | birds |  |  |  |  | nom speech «communication 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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