Grimm's Fairy Stories, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!, sentence 1

A father had two sons, the elder of whom was forward and clever enough to do almost anything; but the younger was so stupid that he could learn nothing, and when the people saw him they said, "Will thy father still keep thee as a burden to him?"

Who acts: father, people · What happens: have, be, do, learn, see, say · To what, where: two sons, anything, nothing, father, thee · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Oh, If I Could But Shiver!. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, people), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher. This tree is Mova's own parse (the en model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 father	det
2	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 had	nsubj
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 sons	nummod
5	sons	son	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 had	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 elder	punct
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 elder	det
8	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sons	appos
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 whom	case
10	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 forward	obl
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 forward	cop
12	forward	forward	ADV	_	8 elder	advmod
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 clever	cc
14	clever	clever	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 elder	conj
15	enough	enough	ADV	_	14 clever	advmod
16	to	to	PART	_	17 do	mark
17	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 clever	advcl
18	almost	almost	ADV	_	19 anything	advmod
19	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	17 do	obj
20	;	;	PUNCT	_	26 stupid	punct
21	but	but	CCONJ	_	26 stupid	cc
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 stupid	det
23	younger	young	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	22 the	xcomp
24	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 stupid	cop
25	so	so	ADV	_	26 stupid	advmod
26	stupid	stupid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 had	parataxis
27	that	that	SCONJ	_	30 learn	mark
28	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 learn	nsubj
29	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	30 learn	aux
30	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 stupid	advcl
31	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	30 learn	obj
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 said	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	40 said	cc
34	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	37 saw	advmod
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 people	det
36	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	37 saw	nsubj
37	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	40 said	advcl
38	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	37 saw	obj
39	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 said	nsubj
40	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 had	parataxis
41	,	,	PUNCT	_	47 keep	punct
42	"	"	PUNCT	_	47 keep	punct
43	Will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	47 keep	aux
44	thy	thy	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs Style=Arch	45 father	nmod:poss
45	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 keep	nsubj
46	still	still	ADV	_	47 keep	advmod
47	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	40 said	conj
48	thee	thou	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=2 PronType=Prs Style=Arch	47 keep	obj
49	as	as	ADP	_	51 burden	case
50	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	51 burden	det
51	burden	burden	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 keep	obl
52	to	to	ADP	_	53 him	case
53	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	51 burden	nmod
54	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 had	punct
55	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 had	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	a father	two sons			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient
2	is	past				of the elder; forward property	tree rules
3	do	to-infinitive	a father not said here	anything			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality
4	is	past				stupid property	tree rules
5	learn	could	father	nothing			vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic
6	see	past	the people	father			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus
7	say speech: ask	past	people				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
8	keep in a quote	future	thy father	thee	still	as a burden to him	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thou=Theme

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.

Text: «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 11027 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11027/9/1/