Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Story of a Mother, sentence 9

And the old man--it was Death himself--he nodded so strangely, it could just as well signify yes as no. And the mother looked down in her lap, and the tears ran down over her cheeks; her head became so heavy--she had not closed her eyes for three days and nights; and now she slept, but only for a minute, when she started up and trembled with cold.

Who acts: child, old man, no., tears, head · What happens: be, nod, signify, look down, run down, become · To what, where: Death, cheeks, eyes

This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (child, old man, no., tears), 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	And	and	CCONJ	_	12 nodded	cc
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 man	det
3	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 man	amod
4	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 nodded	nsubj
5	--	--	PUNCT	_	8 Death	punct
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 Death	nsubj
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 Death	cop
8	Death	Death	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 man	appos
9	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	8 Death	nmod
10	--	--	PUNCT	_	12 nodded	punct
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 nodded	nsubj
12	nodded	nod	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	so	so	ADV	_	14 strangely	advmod
14	strangely	strangely	ADV	_	12 nodded	advmod
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 signify	punct
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 signify	nsubj
17	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	21 signify	aux
18	just	just	ADV	_	21 signify	advmod
19	as	as	ADV	ExtPos=ADV	21 signify	advmod
20	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	19 as	fixed
21	signify	signify	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 nodded	conj
22	yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	21 signify	discourse
23	as	as	SCONJ	_	28 looked	mark
24	no.	no.	NOUN	Abbr=Yes Number=Sing	28 looked	nsubj
25	And	and	CCONJ	_	27 mother	cc
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	27 mother	det
27	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 no.	conj
28	looked	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 signify	advcl
29	down	down	ADP	_	28 looked	compound:prt
30	in	in	ADP	_	32 lap	case
31	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	32 lap	nmod:poss
32	lap	lap	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 looked	obl
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 ran	punct
34	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 ran	cc
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 tears	det
36	tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	37 ran	nsubj
37	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 nodded	conj
38	down	down	ADV	_	37 ran	advmod
39	over	over	ADP	_	41 cheeks	case
40	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	41 cheeks	nmod:poss
41	cheeks	cheek	NOUN	Number=Plur	37 ran	obl
42	;	;	PUNCT	_	45 became	punct
43	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	44 head	nmod:poss
44	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 became	nsubj
45	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 nodded	parataxis
46	so	so	ADV	_	47 heavy	advmod
47	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	45 became	xcomp
48	--	--	PUNCT	_	52 closed	punct
49	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 closed	nsubj
50	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	52 closed	aux
51	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	52 closed	advmod
52	closed	close	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	45 became	conj
53	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	54 eyes	nmod:poss
54	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	52 closed	obj
55	for	for	ADP	_	57 days	case
56	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	57 days	nummod
57	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	52 closed	obl
58	and	and	CCONJ	_	59 nights	cc
59	nights	night	NOUN	Number=Plur	57 days	conj
60	;	;	PUNCT	_	64 slept	punct
61	and	and	CCONJ	_	64 slept	cc
62	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	64 slept	advmod
63	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	64 slept	nsubj
64	slept	sleep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 nodded	conj
65	,	,	PUNCT	_	70 minute	punct
66	but	but	CCONJ	_	70 minute	cc
67	only	only	ADV	_	70 minute	advmod
68	for	for	ADP	_	70 minute	case
69	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	70 minute	det
70	minute	minute	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 nodded	parataxis
71	,	,	PUNCT	_	74 started	punct
72	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	74 started	advmod
73	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	74 started	nsubj
74	started	start	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	70 minute	parataxis
75	up	up	ADP	_	74 started	compound:prt
76	and	and	CCONJ	_	77 trembled	cc
77	trembled	tremble	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	74 started	conj
78	with	with	ADP	_	79 cold	case
79	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	77 trembled	obl
80	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 nodded	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	child	Death			man nmod	tree rules
2	nod	past	the old man				strangely property	vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	signify	could	child					vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
4	look down	past	no. and the mother				in mother's lap	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in lap=Theme
5	run down	past	the tears		mother's cheeks		down property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over cheek=Trajectory
6	become	past	mother's head				heavy property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
7	not close	past · perfect	head	mother's eyes		day		vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient
8	sleep	past	head			now		vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
9	start up	past	head					vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
10	tremble	participle	head not said here				with cold	vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «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: «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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/pg1597/21/9/