The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 8, sentence 38
Our men barely numbered half, and as we were also hampered by the camels, there was no use in fighting, so we tried to overawe them by informing them who we were, and whither we were going.
Who acts: camels, use, we · What happens: number, hamper, be, fight, try, overawe · To what, where: men, we, camels
This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (camels, use, 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 | Our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 men | nmod:poss |
| 2 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 numbered | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | barely | barely | ADV | _ | 4 numbered | advmod |
| 4 | numbered | number | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | half | half | NOUN | Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac | 4 numbered | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 hampered | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 hampered | cc |
| 8 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 12 hampered | mark |
| 9 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 12 hampered | nsubj:pass |
| 10 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 hampered | aux:pass |
| 11 | also | also | ADV | _ | 12 hampered | advmod |
| 12 | hampered | hamper | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 numbered | conj |
| 13 | by | by | ADP | _ | 15 camels | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 camels | det |
| 15 | camels | camel | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 hampered | obl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 was | punct |
| 17 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 18 was | expl |
| 18 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 numbered | parataxis |
| 19 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 20 use | det |
| 20 | use | use | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 was | nsubj |
| 21 | in | in | SCONJ | _ | 22 fighting | mark |
| 22 | fighting | fight | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 20 use | acl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 tried | punct |
| 24 | so | so | ADV | _ | 26 tried | advmod |
| 25 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 26 tried | nsubj |
| 26 | tried | try | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 numbered | parataxis |
| 27 | to | to | PART | _ | 28 overawe | mark |
| 28 | overawe | overawe | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 26 tried | xcomp |
| 29 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 overawe | obj |
| 30 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 31 informing | mark |
| 31 | informing | inform | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 28 overawe | advcl |
| 32 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 informing | obj |
| 33 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 31 informing | obj |
| 34 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 35 were | nsubj |
| 35 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 who | acl:relcl |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 going | punct |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 going | cc |
| 38 | whither | whither | ADV | PronType=Int | 41 going | advmod |
| 39 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 41 going | nsubj |
| 40 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 41 going | aux |
| 41 | going | go | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 26 tried | conj |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 numbered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | number | participle · passive | Our men | barely property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | hamper | past · passive | the camels | we | vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | be | past | no use | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | fight | gerund | no use not said here | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | try | past | we | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 6 | overawe not said to happen | to-infinitive | we not said here | camels = camel | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus they=Experiencer | ||||
| 7 | inform speech: other | gerund | we not said here | camels = camel | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | go | past · progressive | we | whither property | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg128/8/38/