More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, sentence 42

But when the Piper stepped ashore and not so much as a single squeak was to be heard, the Mayor and the Council, and the townsfolk generally, began to hum and to ha and to shake their heads.

Who acts: Piper, townsfolk · What happens: step, hear, begin, hum, ha, shake · To what, where: much, single squeak, heads

This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Piper, townsfolk), 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	But	but	CCONJ	_	31 began	cc
2	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	5 stepped	advmod
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Piper	det
4	Piper	Piper	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 stepped	nsubj
5	stepped	step	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	31 began	advcl
6	ashore	ashore	ADV	_	5 stepped	advmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 ashore	cc
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 much	advmod
9	so	so	ADV	_	10 much	advmod
10	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 stepped	obj
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	18 heard	mark
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 squeak	det
13	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 squeak	amod
14	squeak	squeak	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 heard	nsubj:pass
15	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 heard	aux:pass
16	to	to	PART	_	18 heard	mark
17	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	18 heard	aux:pass
18	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 much	advcl
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 stepped	punct
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 Mayor	det
21	Mayor	Mayor	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 stepped	obj
22	and	and	CCONJ	_	24 Council	cc
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 Council	det
24	Council	Council	PROPN	Number=Sing	21 Mayor	conj
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	31 began	punct
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	31 began	cc
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 townsfolk	det
28	townsfolk	townsfolk	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 began	nsubj
29	generally	generally	ADV	_	31 began	advmod
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 generally	punct
31	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
32	to	to	PART	_	33 hum	mark
33	hum	hum	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	31 began	xcomp
34	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 ha	cc
35	to	to	PART	_	36 ha	mark
36	ha	ha	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	33 hum	conj
37	and	and	CCONJ	_	39 shake	cc
38	to	to	PART	_	39 shake	mark
39	shake	shake	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 ha	conj
40	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	41 heads	nmod:poss
41	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	39 shake	obj
42	.	.	PUNCT	_	31 began	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	step	past	the Piper	much	ashore property	tree rules
2	hear	past · passive		a single squeak		vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus
3	begin	past	the townsfolk		generally property	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
4	hum	to-infinitive	the townsfolk not said here			vn bulge-47.5.3 «NP V»: agent=Location
5	ha	to-infinitive	the townsfolk not said here			tree rules
6	shake	to-infinitive	the townsfolk not said here	rats's heads		vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=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: «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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/pg14241/15/42/