More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, sentence 75

Last Sunday morning at six o'clock in the evening as I was sailing over the tops of the mountains in my little boat, I met two men on horseback riding on one mare: So I asked them, "Could they tell me whether the little old woman was dead yet who was hanged last Saturday week for drowning herself in a shower of feathers?"

Who acts: I, mountains, little old woman · What happens: sail, meet, ask, tell, be, hange · To what, where: six o'clock, tops, two men, horseback riding, mountains, me · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, mountains, little old woman), 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	Last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 morning	amod
2	Sunday	Sunday	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 morning	compound
3	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 met	obl:unmarked
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 o'clock	case
5	six	six	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 o'clock	nummod
6	o'clock	o'clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 morning	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 evening	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 evening	det
9	evening	evening	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 o'clock	nmod
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 sailing	mark
11	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	13 sailing	nsubj
12	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 sailing	aux
13	sailing	sail	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 o'clock	acl
14	over	over	ADP	_	16 tops	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 tops	det
16	tops	top	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 sailing	obl
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 mountains	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 mountains	det
19	mountains	mountain	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 tops	nmod
20	in	in	ADP	_	23 boat	case
21	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 boat	nmod:poss
22	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 boat	amod
23	boat	boat	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 sailing	obl
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 morning	punct
25	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	26 met	nsubj
26	met	meet	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
27	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	28 men	nummod
28	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 met	obj
29	on	on	ADP	_	31 riding	case
30	horseback	horseback	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 riding	compound
31	riding	riding	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 met	obl
32	on	on	ADP	_	34 mare	case
33	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	34 mare	nummod
34	mare	mare	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 riding	nmod
35	:	:	PUNCT	_	38 asked	punct
36	So	so	ADV	_	38 asked	advmod
37	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	38 asked	nsubj
38	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 met	conj
39	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 asked	obj
40	,	,	PUNCT	_	44 tell	punct
41	"	"	PUNCT	_	44 tell	punct
42	Could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	44 tell	aux
43	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	44 tell	nsubj
44	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	38 asked	ccomp
45	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	44 tell	iobj
46	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	52 dead	mark
47	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	50 woman	det
48	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	50 woman	amod
49	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	50 woman	amod
50	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	52 dead	nsubj
51	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	52 dead	cop
52	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	56 hanged	nsubj:pass
53	yet	yet	ADV	_	52 dead	advmod
54	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	56 hanged	nsubj:pass
55	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	56 hanged	aux:pass
56	hanged	hange	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	44 tell	ccomp
57	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	59 week	amod
58	Saturday	Saturday	PROPN	Number=Sing	59 week	compound
59	week	week	NOUN	Number=Sing	56 hanged	obl:unmarked
60	for	for	SCONJ	_	61 drowning	mark
61	drowning	drown	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	56 hanged	advcl
62	herself	herself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	61 drowning	obj
63	in	in	ADP	_	65 shower	case
64	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	65 shower	det
65	shower	shower	NOUN	Number=Sing	61 drowning	obl
66	of	of	ADP	_	67 feathers	case
67	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	65 shower	nmod
68	?	?	PUNCT	_	44 tell	punct
69	"	"	PUNCT	_	44 tell	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sail	past · progressive	I	six o'clock in the evening not said here		the tops of the mountains		in my little boat	vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent o'clock=Theme over top=Trajectory
2	meet	past	I	two men		horseback riding on one mare	morning		vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Co-Agent
3	ask speech: ask	past	I		mountains = mountain				vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic
4	tell speech: assert in a quote	could	mountains = mountain		me				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic
5	is in a quote	past	the little old woman				yet	dead property	tree rules
6	hange in a quote	past · passive		dead			week		tree rules
7	drown in a quote	gerund		mare		a shower of feathers			vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herself=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.

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