The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 15, sentence 17

Our condition seemed to us so frightful that several of my companions thought it would be better to leap from the cliffs and perish in the waves at once, rather than await so miserable an end; but I had a plan of escape which I now unfolded to them, and which they at once agreed to attempt.

Who acts: condition, several, it, I, Our · What happens: seem, think, be, leap, perish, await · To what, where: us, cliffs, waves, miserable end, plan, escape · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (condition, several, it, I), 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	Our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 condition	nmod:poss
2	condition	condition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 seemed	nsubj
3	seemed	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 us	case
5	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 seemed	obl
6	so	so	ADV	_	7 frightful	advmod
7	frightful	frightful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 seemed	xcomp
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	13 thought	mark
9	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 thought	nsubj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 companions	case
11	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 companions	nmod:poss
12	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 several	obl
13	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 frightful	advcl
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 better	nsubj
15	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	17 better	aux
16	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	17 better	cop
17	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	13 thought	ccomp
18	to	to	PART	_	19 leap	mark
19	leap	leap	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	17 better	csubj
20	from	from	ADP	_	22 cliffs	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 cliffs	det
22	cliffs	cliff	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 leap	obl
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	24 perish	cc
24	perish	perish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 leap	conj
25	in	in	ADP	_	27 waves	case
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	27 waves	det
27	waves	wave	NOUN	Number=Plur	24 perish	obl
28	at	at	ADP	_	29 once	case
29	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	24 perish	obl
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 await	punct
31	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	33 await	cc
32	than	than	ADP	_	31 rather	fixed
33	await	await	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 leap	conj
34	so	so	ADV	_	35 miserable	advmod
35	miserable	miserable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 end	amod
36	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	37 end	det
37	end	end	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 await	obj
38	;	;	PUNCT	_	41 had	punct
39	but	but	CCONJ	_	41 had	cc
40	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	41 had	nsubj
41	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 seemed	parataxis
42	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	43 plan	det
43	plan	plan	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 had	obj
44	of	of	ADP	_	45 escape	case
45	escape	escape	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 plan	nmod
46	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	49 unfolded	obj
47	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	49 unfolded	nsubj
48	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	49 unfolded	advmod
49	unfolded	unfold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	43 plan	acl:relcl
50	to	to	ADP	_	51 them	case
51	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	49 unfolded	obl
52	,	,	PUNCT	_	58 agreed	punct
53	and	and	CCONJ	_	58 agreed	cc
54	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	58 agreed	nsubj:pass
55	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	58 agreed	nsubj
56	at	at	ADP	_	57 once	case
57	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	58 agreed	obl
58	agreed	agree	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	41 had	conj
59	to	to	PART	_	60 attempt	mark
60	attempt	attempt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	58 agreed	xcomp
61	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 seemed	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seem	past	Our condition		us			frightful property	vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme
2	think speech: other	past	several						vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is	would	it					good property	tree rules
4	leap	to-infinitive				the cliffs			vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from cliff=Trajectory
5	perish	present				the waves			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
6	await	infinitive		a miserable end					tree rules
7	have	past	I	a plan of escape					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plan=Patient
8	unfold	past	I	a plan of escape	waves = wave		now		vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent which=Patient to they=Result
9	agree speech: agree	participle · passive							vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent that S»: subject=Co-Agent clause=Topic
10	attempt not said to happen	to-infinitive							vn try-61.1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
11	condition		Our						nom condition «state transitive»: poss=agent
12	plan			escape					nom plan «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/pg128/15/17/