falter

Who acts: voice, feet, bo'sun, prince, legs, soldier · What happens: falter, be, go, shake, slow down, mean · To what, where: courage, bo'sun, Muffette, steep hill, fire · Speech: someone speaks here

«falter» in the school dictionary: its 2 meanings for a pupil and its 4 examples, every sentence parsed by Mova itself — its syntax tree, a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies, and its pragmatics clause by clause. The word in the dictionary, with its sense in the lessons: falter in the school dictionary.

Meaning 1

To falter is to stop or go weak for a moment, for example when the voice shakes or the feet slow down.

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 falter	mark
2	falter	falter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 stop	csubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 stop	cop
4	to	to	PART	_	5 stop	mark
5	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 go	cc
7	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 stop	conj
8	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 go	xcomp
9	for	for	ADP	_	11 moment	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 moment	det
11	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 weak	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 example	punct
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 example	case
14	example	example	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 go	obl
15	when	when	SCONJ	_	18 shakes	mark
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 voice	det
17	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 shakes	nsubj
18	shakes	shake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 go	advcl
19	or	or	CCONJ	_	22 slow	cc
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 feet	det
21	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 slow	nsubj
22	slow	slow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 shakes	conj
23	down	down	ADP	_	22 slow	compound:prt
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 stop	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	falter	to-infinitive			vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is	present		stop property	tree rules
3	go	infinitive		for example; weak property	vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for example=Beneficiary
4	shake	present	the voice		vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient
5	slow down	present	the feet		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

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.

Meaning 2

To falter can mean to lose courage and nearly give up, but not quite.

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 falter	mark
2	falter	falter	AUX	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	4 mean	aux
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 mean	aux
4	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 lose	mark
6	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 mean	xcomp
7	courage	courage	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lose	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 give	cc
9	nearly	nearly	ADV	_	10 give	advmod
10	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 lose	conj
11	up	up	ADP	_	10 give	compound:prt
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 quite	punct
13	but	but	CCONJ	_	15 quite	cc
14	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	15 quite	advmod
15	quite	quite	ADV	_	4 mean	conj
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 mean	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	can · infinitive			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	lose not said to happen	to-infinitive	courage		vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent courage=Eventuality
3	give up	infinitive		nearly property	vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Example 1

The bo'sun faltered when he was asked why.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 bo'sun	det
2	bo'sun	bo'sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 faltered	nsubj
3	faltered	falter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	7 asked	advmod
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 asked	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 asked	aux:pass
7	asked	ask	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 faltered	advcl
8	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	7 asked	advmod
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 faltered	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	falter	past	the bo'sun						vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	ask speech: ask	past · passive		bo'sun					vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient

Example 2

«Is the prince dead?» faltered Muffette.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	5 dead	punct
2	Is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 dead	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 prince	det
4	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dead	nsubj
5	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 faltered	parataxis
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 dead	punct
7	»	»	PUNCT	_	5 dead	punct
8	faltered	falter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	Muffette	Muffette	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 faltered	obj
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 faltered	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	the prince					dead property	tree rules
2	falter	past		Muffette					tree rules

Example 3

His legs began to falter on the steep hill.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 legs	nmod:poss
2	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 began	nsubj
3	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 falter	mark
5	falter	falter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 began	xcomp
6	on	on	ADP	_	9 hill	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 hill	det
8	steep	steep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 hill	amod
9	hill	hill	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 falter	obl
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 began	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	begin	past	His legs						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	falter	to-infinitive	His legs not said here			the steep hill			vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on hill=Location

Example 4

Even under fire, the soldier did not falter.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Even	even	ADV	_	3 fire	advmod
2	under	under	ADP	_	3 fire	case
3	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 falter	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 fire	punct
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 soldier	det
6	soldier	soldier	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 falter	nsubj
7	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 falter	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 falter	advmod
9	falter	falter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 falter	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not falter	past · do-support	the soldier			fire			vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme under fire=Location

Text: the school dictionary of Mova's schools (world/data/dictionary-schools/), written for Mova. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each meaning and example read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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