The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 20, sentence 23
The usher hastened on his errand, but was only just in time, for the tailor was positively swinging in the air, when his voice fell upon the silence of the crowd, commanding the hangman to cut down the body.
Who acts: usher, voice · What happens: hasten, be, swing, fall, command, cut down · To what, where: usher, errand, silence, hangman, body, crowd · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (usher, voice), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 usher | det |
| 2 | usher | usher | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 swinging | nsubj |
| 3 | hastened | hasten | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 usher | acl |
| 4 | on | on | ADP | _ | 6 errand | case |
| 5 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 errand | nmod:poss |
| 6 | errand | errand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 hastened | obl |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 time | punct |
| 8 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 13 time | cc |
| 9 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 time | cop |
| 10 | only | only | ADV | _ | 13 time | advmod |
| 11 | just | just | ADV | _ | 13 time | advmod |
| 12 | in | in | ADP | _ | 13 time | case |
| 13 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 usher | conj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 tailor | punct |
| 15 | for | for | ADP | _ | 17 tailor | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 tailor | det |
| 17 | tailor | tailor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 usher | conj |
| 18 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 swinging | aux |
| 19 | positively | positively | ADV | _ | 20 swinging | advmod |
| 20 | swinging | swing | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 21 | in | in | ADP | _ | 23 air | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 air | det |
| 23 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 swinging | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 fell | punct |
| 25 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 28 fell | advmod |
| 26 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 27 voice | nmod:poss |
| 27 | voice | voice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 fell | nsubj |
| 28 | fell | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 swinging | conj |
| 29 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 31 silence | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 silence | det |
| 31 | silence | silence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 fell | obl |
| 32 | of | of | ADP | _ | 34 crowd | case |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 crowd | det |
| 34 | crowd | crowd | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 silence | nmod |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 commanding | punct |
| 36 | commanding | command | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 28 fell | advcl |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 hangman | det |
| 38 | hangman | hangman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 commanding | obj |
| 39 | to | to | PART | _ | 40 cut | mark |
| 40 | cut | cut | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 36 commanding | advcl |
| 41 | down | down | ADP | _ | 40 cut | compound:prt |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 body | det |
| 43 | body | body | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 cut | obj |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 20 swinging | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hasten | participle | the usher but time and the tailor not said here | usher's errand | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on errand=Trajectory | ||||
| 2 | is | past | the usher but time and the tailor not said here | in time | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | swing | past · progressive | the usher but time and the tailor | in the air; positively property | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in air=Attribute | ||||
| 4 | fall | past | usher's voice | the silence of the crowd | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon silence=Location | ||||
| 5 | command | gerund | usher's voice not said here | the hangman | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent hangman=Eventuality | ||||
| 6 | cut down | to-infinitive | usher's voice not said here | the body | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset body=Product | ||||
| 7 | silence | the crowd | nom silence «state 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/pg128/20/23/