The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 17, sentence 24

I soon learnt that the object of our expedition was to fill our sacks with cocoanuts, but when at length I saw the trees and noted their immense height and the slippery smoothness of their slender trunks, I did not at all understand how we were to do it.

Who acts: I, object, we · What happens: learn, be, see, note, do, not understand · To what, where: trees, length, immense height, sack · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, object, we), 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	3 learnt	nsubj
2	soon	soon	ADV	Degree=Pos	3 learnt	advmod
3	learnt	learn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 fill	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 object	det
6	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 fill	nsubj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 expedition	case
8	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 expedition	nmod:poss
9	expedition	expedition	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 object	nmod
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 fill	cop
11	to	to	PART	_	12 fill	mark
12	fill	fill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 learnt	ccomp
13	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 sacks	nmod:poss
14	sacks	sack	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 fill	obj
15	with	with	ADP	_	16 cocoanuts	case
16	cocoanuts	cocoanut	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 fill	obl
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 saw	punct
18	but	but	CCONJ	_	23 saw	cc
19	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	23 saw	advmod
20	at	at	ADP	_	21 length	case
21	length	length	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 saw	obl
22	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	23 saw	nsubj
23	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 learnt	parataxis
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 trees	det
25	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 saw	obj
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 noted	cc
27	noted	note	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 saw	conj
28	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	30 height	nmod:poss
29	immense	immense	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 height	amod
30	height	height	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 noted	obj
31	and	and	CCONJ	_	34 smoothness	cc
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	34 smoothness	det
33	slippery	slippery	ADJ	Degree=Pos	34 smoothness	amod
34	smoothness	smoothness	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 height	conj
35	of	of	ADP	_	38 trunks	case
36	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	38 trunks	nmod:poss
37	slender	slender	ADJ	Degree=Pos	38 trunks	amod
38	trunks	trunk	NOUN	Number=Plur	34 smoothness	nmod
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 did	punct
40	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	41 did	nsubj
41	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 learnt	conj
42	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	45 understand	advmod
43	at	at	SCONJ	_	45 understand	mark
44	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	45 understand	advmod
45	understand	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	41 did	ccomp
46	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	50 do	advmod
47	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	50 do	nsubj
48	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	50 do	aux
49	to	to	PART	_	50 do	mark
50	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	45 understand	ccomp
51	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	50 do	obj
52	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 learnt	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	learn	past	I			soon property	vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	is	past	the object of our expedition			with cocoanuts; fill property	tree rules
3	see	past	I	the trees	length		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tree=Stimulus
4	note	past	I not said here	trees's immense height and the slippery smoothness of trees's slender trunks			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent height=Topic
5	do	past	I				tree rules
6	not understand	present	I not said here				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
7	do	past	we	sack			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality

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/pg128/17/24/