Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 1, sentence 18

One might have thought at first they were servants come to accompany their mistresses home; but on looking nearer, one soon saw they could scarcely be mere servants; their forms were too noble for that, their skin too fine, the cut of their dress too striking.

Who acts: figures, forms, skin · What happens: think, be, accompany, look, see, strike · To what, where: One, mistresses, mere servants · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, 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 (figures, forms, skin), 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	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 thought	nsubj:pass
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 thought	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 thought	aux
4	thought	think	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 first	case
6	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	4 thought	obl
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 come	nsubj
8	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 come	cop
9	servants	servant	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 come	nsubj
10	come	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 thought	parataxis
11	to	to	PART	_	12 accompany	mark
12	accompany	accompany	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 come	xcomp
13	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 mistresses	nmod:poss
14	mistresses	mistress	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 accompany	obj
15	home	home	ADV	_	12 accompany	advmod
16	;	;	PUNCT	_	24 saw	punct
17	but	but	CCONJ	_	24 saw	cc
18	on	on	SCONJ	_	19 looking	mark
19	looking	look	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	24 saw	advcl
20	nearer	near	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	19 looking	xcomp
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 looking	punct
22	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	19 looking	obj
23	soon	soon	ADV	Degree=Pos	19 looking	advmod
24	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 thought	conj
25	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 servants	nsubj
26	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	30 servants	aux
27	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	_	30 servants	advmod
28	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	30 servants	cop
29	mere	mere	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 servants	amod
30	servants	servant	NOUN	Number=Plur	24 saw	ccomp
31	;	;	PUNCT	_	36 noble	punct
32	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	33 forms	nmod:poss
33	forms	form	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 noble	nsubj
34	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 noble	cop
35	too	too	ADV	_	36 noble	advmod
36	noble	noble	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 thought	parataxis
37	for	for	ADP	_	38 that	case
38	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	36 noble	obl
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	43 fine	punct
40	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	41 skin	nmod:poss
41	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 fine	nsubj
42	too	too	ADV	_	43 fine	advmod
43	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	36 noble	conj
44	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 cut	punct
45	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	46 cut	det
46	cut	cut	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 fine	parataxis
47	of	of	ADP	_	49 dress	case
48	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	49 dress	nmod:poss
49	dress	dress	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 cut	nmod
50	too	too	ADV	_	51 striking	advmod
51	striking	strike	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	46 cut	advcl
52	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 thought	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	might · perfect · passive		One		vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	is	past	figures = figure		come property	tree rules
3	accompany	to-infinitive	figures = figure not said here	figures's mistresses	home property	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mistress=Theme
4	look	gerund		one	near, soon property	vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme one=Attribute
5	see	past				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
6	is a	could	figures = figure	mere servants	scarcely property	tree rules
7	is	past	figures's forms		for that; noble property	tree rules
8	be		figures's skin			tree rules
9	strike	gerund	figures's skin not said here			vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
10	form		figures = figure			nom form «communication transitive»: 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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