The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 21, sentence 93
My brother, hearing this, asked the porters, of whom there were several, if they would give him alms.
Who acts: brother · What happens: hear, ask, give · To what, where: this, porters, alms, Barmecide
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brother), 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 | My | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 brother | nmod:poss |
| 2 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 asked | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 hearing | punct |
| 4 | hearing | hear | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 2 brother | acl |
| 5 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 4 hearing | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 brother | punct |
| 7 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 porters | det |
| 9 | porters | porter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 asked | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 whom | punct |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 whom | case |
| 12 | whom | whom | PRON | PronType=Rel | 7 asked | parataxis |
| 13 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 14 were | expl |
| 14 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 whom | acl:relcl |
| 15 | several | several | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 were | xcomp |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 give | punct |
| 17 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 20 give | mark |
| 18 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 give | nsubj |
| 19 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 20 give | aux |
| 20 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 asked | conj |
| 21 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 give | iobj |
| 22 | alms | alm | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 give | obj |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 asked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hear | gerund | My brother not said here | this | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus | ||||
| 2 | ask speech: ask | past | My brother | the porters | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent porter=Recipient | ||||
| 3 | give a condition, not said to happen | would | brother | alms | Barmecide | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient alm=Theme |
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/pg128/21/93/