---
title: They excused themselves, pleading that they had already eaten. — Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat · tree and pragmatics
description: They excused themselves, pleading that they had already eaten. Who acts: guests. A sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, Magadha and Rupvati., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat, Magadha and Rupvati., sentence 74

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They excused themselves, pleading that they had already eaten.

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**Who acts:** guests · **What happens:** excuse, plead, eat · **To what, where:** guests

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, Magadha and Rupvati.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (guests), 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:pg76982:18:74
# text = They excused themselves, pleading that they had already eaten.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	excused	excuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	pleading	plead	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	already	already	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **excuse** | past | guests *= guest* | guests *= guest* |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme |
| 2 | **plead** *speech: request* | gerund | guests *= guest* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **eat** | past · perfect | guests *= guest* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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