The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 17, sentence 40

In spite of all the sailors could do we were driven with frightful rapidity towards the foot of a mountain, which rose sheer out of the sea, and our vessel was dashed to pieces upon the rocks at its base, not, however, until we had managed to scramble on shore, carrying with us the most precious of our possessions.

Who acts: we, our · What happens: do, drive, rise, dash, not manage, not scramble · To what, where: spite, we, sheer, sea, vessel, base

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 (we, our), 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	In	in	ADP	_	2 spite	case
2	spite	spite	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 do	obl
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 sailors	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 sailors	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sailors	det
6	sailors	sailor	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 spite	nmod
7	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 do	aux
8	do	do	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	11 driven	nsubj
10	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 driven	aux:pass
11	driven	drive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 do	advcl
12	with	with	ADP	_	14 rapidity	case
13	frightful	frightful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 rapidity	amod
14	rapidity	rapidity	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 driven	obl
15	towards	towards	ADP	_	17 foot	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 foot	det
17	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 rose	obl
18	of	of	ADP	_	20 mountain	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 mountain	det
20	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 foot	nmod
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 rose	punct
22	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	23 rose	nsubj
23	rose	rise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 driven	parataxis
24	sheer	sheer	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 rose	obj
25	out	out	ADP	_	28 sea	case
26	of	of	ADP	_	28 sea	case
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 sea	det
28	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 rose	obl
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 dashed	punct
30	and	and	CCONJ	_	34 dashed	cc
31	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	32 vessel	nmod:poss
32	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 dashed	nsubj:pass
33	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	34 dashed	aux:pass
34	dashed	dash	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 do	advcl
35	to	to	ADP	_	36 pieces	case
36	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	34 dashed	obl
37	upon	upon	ADP	_	39 rocks	case
38	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	39 rocks	det
39	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 pieces	nmod
40	at	at	ADP	_	42 base	case
41	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 base	nmod:poss
42	base	base	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 dashed	obl
43	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 managed	punct
44	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	51 managed	advmod
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	44 not	punct
46	however	however	ADV	_	51 managed	advmod
47	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 however	punct
48	until	until	SCONJ	_	51 managed	mark
49	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	51 managed	nsubj
50	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	51 managed	aux
51	managed	manage	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 do	conj
52	to	to	PART	_	53 scramble	mark
53	scramble	scramble	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	51 managed	xcomp
54	on	on	ADP	_	55 shore	case
55	shore	shore	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 scramble	obl
56	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 carrying	punct
57	carrying	carry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	53 scramble	advcl
58	with	with	ADP	_	59 us	case
59	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	57 carrying	obl
60	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	62 precious	det
61	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	62 precious	advmod
62	precious	precious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	57 carrying	conj
63	of	of	ADP	_	65 possessions	case
64	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	65 possessions	nmod:poss
65	possessions	possession	NOUN	Number=Plur	62 precious	obl
66	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 do	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	could			spite of all sailors		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	drive	past · passive		we		with frightful rapidity	vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
3	rise	past		sheer	the sea	towards the foot of a mountain	tree rules
4	dash	past · passive		our vessel	vessel's base	to pieces upon the rocks result	vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Patient to piece=Result
5	not manage	past · perfect	we			however property	vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
6	not scramble	to-infinitive	we not said here		shore		vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on shore=Trajectory
7	carry	gerund	we not said here			with us	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
8	spite			all sailors			nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient
9	possess		our				nom possession «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/pg128/17/40/