The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 30, sentence 57
Pretending that he wished to read it a second time, Saouy turned aside as if to seek a better light; unperceived by anyone he tore off the formula from the top of the letter, put it to his mouth, and swallowed it.
Who acts: Saouy, king · What happens: pretend, wish, read, turn, seek, unperceiv · To what, where: order, better light, formula, top
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Saouy, king), 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 | Pretending | pretend | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 4 wished | nsubj |
| 2 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 4 wished | mark |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 wished | nsubj |
| 4 | wished | wish | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 read | mark |
| 6 | read | read | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 wished | xcomp |
| 7 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 read | obj |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 time | det |
| 9 | second | second | ADJ | Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 10 time | amod |
| 10 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 read | obl:unmarked |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 turned | punct |
| 12 | Saouy | Saouy | PROPN | Number=Sing | 13 turned | nsubj |
| 13 | turned | turn | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 wished | advcl |
| 14 | aside | aside | ADV | _ | 13 turned | advmod |
| 15 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 18 seek | mark |
| 16 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 18 seek | mark |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 seek | mark |
| 18 | seek | seek | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 turned | advcl |
| 19 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 light | det |
| 20 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 21 light | amod |
| 21 | light | light | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 seek | obj |
| 22 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 23 unperceived | punct |
| 23 | unperceived | unperceiv | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 wished | parataxis |
| 24 | by | by | ADP | _ | 25 anyone | case |
| 25 | anyone | anyone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 23 unperceived | obl:agent |
| 26 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 tore | nsubj |
| 27 | tore | tore | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 anyone | acl:relcl |
| 28 | off | off | ADP | _ | 27 tore | compound:prt |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 formula | det |
| 30 | formula | formula | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 tore | obj |
| 31 | from | from | ADP | _ | 33 top | case |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 top | det |
| 33 | top | top | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 tore | obl |
| 34 | of | of | ADP | _ | 36 letter | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 letter | det |
| 36 | letter | letter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 top | nmod |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 put | punct |
| 38 | put | put | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 23 unperceived | conj |
| 39 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 put | obj |
| 40 | to | to | ADP | _ | 42 mouth | case |
| 41 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 mouth | nmod:poss |
| 42 | mouth | mouth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 put | obl |
| 43 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 swallowed | punct |
| 44 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 45 swallowed | cc |
| 45 | swallowed | swallow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 wished | advcl |
| 46 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 swallowed | obj |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 wished | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pretend | gerund | tree rules | ||||||
| 2 | wish | past | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | ||||||
| 3 | read not said to happen | to-infinitive | order | time | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic | ||||
| 4 | turn | past | Saouy | aside property | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | seek | to-infinitive | Saouy not said here | a better light | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Theme | ||||
| 6 | unperceiv | participle | tree rules | ||||||
| 7 | tore off | past | king | the formula | the top of the letter | tree rules | |||
| 8 | put | infinitive | order | to king's mouth | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=Goal | ||||
| 9 | swallow | past | order | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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/pg128/30/57/