Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shadow, sentence 227

“I will not say for a certainty that he can,” said the shadow, “but I think so; he has now followed me for so many years, and listened to my conversation--I should think it possible.

Who acts: shadow, my · What happens: not say, say, think, follow, listen, converse · To what, where: water, conversation · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shadow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shadow, my), 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	“	"	PUNCT	_	5 say	punct
2	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	5 say	nsubj
3	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 say	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 say	advmod
5	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 said	ccomp
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 certainty	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 certainty	det
8	certainty	certainty	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 say	obl
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 can	mark
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 can	nsubj
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 certainty	acl:relcl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 say	punct
13	”	"	PUNCT	_	5 say	punct
14	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 shadow	det
16	shadow	shadow	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 said	obj
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 think	punct
18	“	"	PUNCT	_	21 think	punct
19	but	but	CCONJ	_	21 think	cc
20	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	21 think	nsubj
21	think	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 said	conj
22	so	so	ADV	_	21 think	advmod
23	;	;	PUNCT	_	27 followed	punct
24	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 followed	nsubj:pass
25	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	27 followed	aux
26	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	27 followed	advmod
27	followed	follow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 said	conj
28	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	27 followed	obj
29	for	for	ADP	_	32 years	case
30	so	so	ADV	_	31 many	advmod
31	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	32 years	amod
32	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	27 followed	obl
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 listened	punct
34	and	and	CCONJ	_	35 listened	cc
35	listened	listen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 said	parataxis
36	to	to	ADP	_	38 conversation	case
37	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	38 conversation	nmod:poss
38	conversation	conversation	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 listened	obl
39	--	--	PUNCT	_	42 think	punct
40	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	42 think	nsubj
41	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	42 think	aux
42	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 said	conj
43	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	42 think	obj
44	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	42 think	xcomp
45	.	.	PUNCT	_	14 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	not say speech: assert in a quote	future	the shadow = shadow			for a certainty	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	say speech: assert	past	the shadow				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	think speech: other in a quote	present	the shadow = shadow				vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	follow in a quote	present · perfect · passive		water	now; year		vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP.attribute»: subject=Theme i=Attribute
5	listen in a quote	past				to my conversation	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to conversation=Theme
6	think speech: other in a quote	should	the shadow = shadow	conversation		possible property	vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot it=Theme
7	converse in a quote		my				nom conversation «communication intransitive»: poss=agent

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.

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