The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 14, sentence 15
When I had climbed a tall tree I first of all directed my anxious glances towards the sea; but, finding nothing hopeful there, I turned landward, and my curiosity was excited by a huge dazzling white object, so far off that I could not make out what it might be.
Who acts: I, curiosity, my · What happens: climb, direct, find, turn, be, not make out · To what, where: tall tree, nothing
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, curiosity, my), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 4 climbed | advmod |
| 2 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 4 climbed | nsubj |
| 3 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 climbed | aux |
| 4 | climbed | climb | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 tree | det |
| 6 | tall | tall | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 tree | amod |
| 7 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 climbed | obj |
| 8 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 15 glances | nsubj |
| 9 | first | first | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 15 glances | advmod |
| 10 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 glances | case |
| 11 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 15 glances | nsubj |
| 12 | directed | direct | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 15 glances | amod |
| 13 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 glances | nmod:poss |
| 14 | anxious | anxious | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 glances | amod |
| 15 | glances | glance | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 climbed | obl |
| 16 | towards | towards | ADP | _ | 18 sea | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 sea | det |
| 18 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 climbed | obl |
| 19 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 28 turned | punct |
| 20 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 28 turned | cc |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 finding | punct |
| 22 | finding | find | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 28 turned | ccomp |
| 23 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 22 finding | obj |
| 24 | hopeful | hopeful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 nothing | amod |
| 25 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 24 hopeful | advmod |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 finding | punct |
| 27 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 28 turned | nsubj |
| 28 | turned | turn | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 climbed | conj |
| 29 | landward | landward | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 turned | xcomp |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 excited | punct |
| 31 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 excited | cc |
| 32 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 33 curiosity | nmod:poss |
| 33 | curiosity | curiosity | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 excited | nsubj |
| 34 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 excited | cop |
| 35 | excited | excited | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 turned | parataxis |
| 36 | by | by | ADP | _ | 41 object | case |
| 37 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 41 object | det |
| 38 | huge | huge | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 object | amod |
| 39 | dazzling | dazzling | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 object | compound |
| 40 | white | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 object | amod |
| 41 | object | object | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 excited | obl |
| 42 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 50 make | punct |
| 43 | so | so | ADV | _ | 44 far | advmod |
| 44 | far | far | ADV | Degree=Pos | 50 make | advmod |
| 45 | off | off | ADP | _ | 50 make | mark |
| 46 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 45 off | fixed |
| 47 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 50 make | nsubj |
| 48 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 50 make | aux |
| 49 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 50 make | advmod |
| 50 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 35 excited | conj |
| 51 | out | out | ADP | _ | 50 make | compound:prt |
| 52 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 55 be | obj |
| 53 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 55 be | nsubj |
| 54 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 55 be | aux |
| 55 | be | be | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 50 make | ccomp |
| 56 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 climbed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | climb | past · perfect | I | a tall tree | of my directed anxious glances; towards the sea | tree rules | |||
| 2 | direct | participle | vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 3 | find | gerund | I not said here | nothing | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic | ||||
| 4 | turn | past | I | landward property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | is | past | my curiosity | by a huge dazzling white object; excited property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | not make out | could | I | far property | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | be | might | curiosity | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme | |||||
| 8 | glance | my | nom glance «act intransitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg128/14/15/