The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 15, sentence 2
Presently we saw in the far distance what seemed to us to be a splendid palace, towards which we turned our weary steps, but when we reached it we saw that it was a castle, lofty, and strongly built.
Who acts: we, far distance, us, palace, our · What happens: see, seem, be, turn, reach, build · To what, where: weary steps, palace, castle · 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 (we, far distance, us, palace), 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 | Presently | presently | ADV | _ | 3 saw | advmod |
| 2 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 3 saw | nsubj |
| 3 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | in | in | ADP | _ | 7 distance | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 distance | det |
| 6 | far | far | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 distance | amod |
| 7 | distance | distance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 saw | obl |
| 8 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 9 seemed | nsubj |
| 9 | seemed | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 distance | acl:relcl |
| 10 | to | to | ADP | _ | 16 palace | case |
| 11 | us | we | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 16 palace | nsubj |
| 12 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 palace | mark |
| 13 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 16 palace | cop |
| 14 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 palace | det |
| 15 | splendid | splendid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 palace | amod |
| 16 | palace | palace | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 seemed | obl |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 turned | punct |
| 18 | towards | towards | ADP | _ | 19 which | case |
| 19 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 21 turned | obl |
| 20 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 21 turned | nsubj |
| 21 | turned | turn | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 saw | conj |
| 22 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 24 steps | nmod:poss |
| 23 | weary | weary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 steps | amod |
| 24 | steps | step | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 turned | obj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 saw | punct |
| 26 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 32 saw | cc |
| 27 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 29 reached | mark |
| 28 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 29 reached | nsubj |
| 29 | reached | reach | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 saw | advcl |
| 30 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 reached | obj |
| 31 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 32 saw | nsubj |
| 32 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 saw | conj |
| 33 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 37 castle | mark |
| 34 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 castle | nsubj |
| 35 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 castle | cop |
| 36 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 castle | det |
| 37 | castle | castle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 saw | ccomp |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 lofty | punct |
| 39 | lofty | lofty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 castle | conj |
| 40 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 built | punct |
| 41 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 built | cc |
| 42 | strongly | strongly | ADV | _ | 43 built | advmod |
| 43 | built | build | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 saw | conj |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 saw | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | see | past | we | in the far distance; presently property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 2 | seem | past | the far distance | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | is | to-infinitive | us | to a splendid palace | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | turn | past | we | our weary steps | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent step=Theme towards which=Trajectory | ||||
| 5 | reach | past | we | palace | vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent it=Theme | ||||
| 6 | see | past | we | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 7 | is a | past | palace | a castle | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | be | palace not said here | tree rules | ||||||
| 9 | build | participle | we not said here | strongly property | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | ||||
| 10 | step | our | nom step «act transitive»: 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/pg128/15/2/