The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 14, sentence 36

I had always thought that the stories the sailors told of the famous valley of diamonds, and of the cunning way which some merchants had devised for getting at the precious stones, were mere travellers' tales invented to give pleasure to the hearers, but now I perceived that they were surely true.

Who acts: I, stories, tales, mere travellers · What happens: think, tell, devise, get, be, invent · To what, where: merchants, precious stones, tales, pleasure, hearers · Speech: someone speaks here

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, stories, tales, mere travellers), 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	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	4 thought	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 thought	aux
3	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	4 thought	advmod
4	thought	think	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 told	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 stories	det
7	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 told	nsubj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sailors	det
9	sailors	sailor	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 stories	conj
10	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 thought	ccomp
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 valley	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 valley	det
13	famous	famous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 valley	amod
14	valley	valley	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 told	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 diamonds	case
16	diamonds	diamond	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 valley	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 way	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 way	cc
19	of	of	ADP	_	22 way	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 way	det
21	cunning	cunning	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 way	compound
22	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 told	ccomp
23	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	27 devised	obj
24	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	25 merchants	det
25	merchants	merchant	NOUN	Number=Plur	27 devised	nsubj:pass
26	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	27 devised	aux
27	devised	devise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	22 way	acl:relcl
28	for	for	SCONJ	_	29 getting	mark
29	getting	get	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	27 devised	advcl
30	at	at	ADP	_	33 stones	case
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 stones	det
32	precious	precious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	33 stones	amod
33	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	29 getting	obl
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 were	punct
35	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 told	conj
36	mere	mere	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 travellers	amod
37	travellers	traveller	NOUN	Number=Plur	39 tales	nmod:poss
38	'	's	PART	_	37 travellers	case
39	tales	tale	NOUN	Number=Plur	35 were	nsubj
40	invented	invent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	39 tales	acl
41	to	to	PART	_	42 give	mark
42	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	40 invented	xcomp
43	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 give	obj
44	to	to	ADP	_	46 hearers	case
45	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	46 hearers	det
46	hearers	hearer	NOUN	Number=Plur	42 give	obl
47	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 perceived	punct
48	but	but	CCONJ	_	51 perceived	cc
49	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	51 perceived	advmod
50	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	51 perceived	nsubj
51	perceived	perceive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 thought	conj
52	that	that	SCONJ	_	56 true	mark
53	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	56 true	nsubj
54	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	56 true	cop
55	surely	surely	ADV	_	56 true	advmod
56	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	51 perceived	advcl
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 thought	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	past · perfect	I					always property	vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	tell speech: assert	past	the stories and the sailors					of the famous valley of diamonds	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	devise	past · perfect · passive		some merchants					tree rules
4	get	gerund				the precious stones			vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
5	be	past	mere travellers's tales						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
6	invent	participle		mere travellers's tales not said here					tree rules
7	give	to-infinitive		pleasure	the hearers				vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent pleasure=Theme to hearer=Recipient
8	perceive	past	I				now		vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
9	is	past	tales = tale					surely, true property	tree rules
10	tell		mere travellers						nom tale «communication 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/pg128/14/36/