The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 11, sentence 19
Accordingly a sailor was sent up to the masthead to try to catch a sight of land, and reported that nothing was to be seen but the sea and sky, except a huge mass of blackness that lay astern.
Who acts: huge mass · What happens: send up, try, catch, report, see, lie · To what, where: sailor, masthead, sight, nothing, land
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (huge mass), 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 | Accordingly | accordingly | ADV | _ | 5 sent | advmod |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 sailor | det |
| 3 | sailor | sailor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sent | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 sent | aux:pass |
| 5 | sent | send | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | up | up | ADP | _ | 5 sent | compound:prt |
| 7 | to | to | ADP | _ | 9 masthead | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 masthead | det |
| 9 | masthead | masthead | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sent | obl |
| 10 | to | to | PART | _ | 11 try | mark |
| 11 | try | try | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 sent | advcl |
| 12 | to | to | PART | _ | 13 catch | mark |
| 13 | catch | catch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 try | xcomp |
| 14 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 sight | det |
| 15 | sight | sight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 catch | obj |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 land | case |
| 17 | land | land | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 sight | nmod |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 reported | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 reported | cc |
| 20 | reported | report | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 sent | conj |
| 21 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 26 seen | mark |
| 22 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 26 seen | nsubj:pass |
| 23 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 seen | aux:pass |
| 24 | to | to | PART | _ | 26 seen | mark |
| 25 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 26 seen | aux:pass |
| 26 | seen | see | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 reported | ccomp |
| 27 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 29 sea | cc |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 sea | det |
| 29 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 seen | conj |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 sky | cc |
| 31 | sky | sky | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 sea | conj |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 mass | punct |
| 33 | except | except | ADP | _ | 36 mass | case |
| 34 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 36 mass | det |
| 35 | huge | huge | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 mass | amod |
| 36 | mass | mass | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 seen | obl |
| 37 | of | of | ADP | _ | 38 blackness | case |
| 38 | blackness | blackness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 mass | nmod |
| 39 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 40 lay | nsubj |
| 40 | lay | lie | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 36 mass | acl:relcl |
| 41 | astern | astern | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 lay | xcomp |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 sent | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | send up | past · passive | a sailor | the masthead | accordingly property | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to masthead=Destination | |||
| 2 | try | to-infinitive | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||||
| 3 | catch not said to happen | to-infinitive | a sight of land | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme | |||||
| 4 | report | past | vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | ||||||
| 5 | see | past · passive | nothing | except a huge mass of blackness | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus | ||||
| 6 | lie | past | a huge mass of blackness | astern property | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 7 | sight | land | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=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.
Text: «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 128 (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/pg128/11/19/