Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 3, sentence 52

A motley phantasmagoria presents itself before him, which he describes in a few satirical touches, yet without expressing his opinion openly: he tells the people enough to set them all thinking and guessing; but in order to hurt nobody, he wraps his witty oracular judgments in a transparent veil, or rather in a lurid thundercloud, shooting forth bright sparks of wit, that they may fall in the powder-magazine of the expectant audience.”

Who acts: motley phantasmagoria, magician, lurid thundercloud, sparks, wit · What happens: present, describe, express, tell, set, think · To what, where: phantasmagoria, few satirical touches, opinion, people, nobody, witty oracular judgments · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (motley phantasmagoria, magician, lurid thundercloud, sparks), 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	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 phantasmagoria	det
2	motley	motley	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 phantasmagoria	amod
3	phantasmagoria	phantasmagoria	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 presents	nsubj
4	presents	present	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 presents	obj
6	before	before	ADP	_	7 him	case
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 presents	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 describes	punct
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 describes	nsubj
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 describes	nsubj
11	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 presents	parataxis
12	in	in	ADP	_	16 touches	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 touches	det
14	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 touches	amod
15	satirical	satirical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 touches	amod
16	touches	touch	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 describes	obl
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 expressing	punct
18	yet	yet	CCONJ	_	20 expressing	cc
19	without	without	SCONJ	_	20 expressing	mark
20	expressing	express	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 describes	advcl
21	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	22 opinion	nmod:poss
22	opinion	opinion	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 expressing	obj
23	openly	openly	ADV	_	20 expressing	advmod
24	:	:	PUNCT	_	26 tells	punct
25	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 tells	nsubj
26	tells	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 expressing	parataxis
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 people	det
28	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 tells	obj
29	enough	enough	ADV	_	26 tells	advmod
30	to	to	PART	_	31 set	mark
31	set	set	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 tells	ccomp
32	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 set	obj
33	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	32 them	nmod:unmarked
34	thinking	think	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	31 set	xcomp
35	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 guessing	cc
36	guessing	guess	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	34 thinking	conj
37	;	;	PUNCT	_	46 wraps	punct
38	but	but	CCONJ	_	46 wraps	cc
39	in	in	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	42 hurt	mark
40	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 in	fixed
41	to	to	PART	_	42 hurt	mark
42	hurt	hurt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	46 wraps	advcl
43	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	42 hurt	obj
44	,	,	PUNCT	_	42 hurt	punct
45	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	46 wraps	nsubj
46	wraps	wrap	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 presents	conj
47	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	50 judgments	nmod:poss
48	witty	witty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	50 judgments	amod
49	oracular	oracular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	50 judgments	amod
50	judgments	judgment	NOUN	Number=Plur	46 wraps	obj
51	in	in	ADP	_	54 veil	case
52	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	54 veil	det
53	transparent	transparent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	54 veil	amod
54	veil	veil	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 wraps	obl
55	,	,	PUNCT	_	61 thundercloud	punct
56	or	or	CCONJ	_	61 thundercloud	cc
57	rather	rather	ADV	_	61 thundercloud	advmod
58	in	in	ADP	_	61 thundercloud	case
59	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	61 thundercloud	det
60	lurid	lurid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	61 thundercloud	amod
61	thundercloud	thundercloud	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 wraps	obl
62	,	,	PUNCT	_	63 shooting	punct
63	shooting	shoot	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	61 thundercloud	acl
64	forth	forth	ADV	_	63 shooting	advmod
65	bright	bright	ADJ	Degree=Pos	66 sparks	amod
66	sparks	spark	NOUN	Number=Plur	63 shooting	obj
67	of	of	ADP	_	68 wit	case
68	wit	wit	NOUN	Number=Sing	66 sparks	nmod
69	,	,	PUNCT	_	73 fall	punct
70	that	that	SCONJ	_	73 fall	mark
71	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	73 fall	nsubj
72	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	73 fall	aux
73	fall	fall	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	46 wraps	ccomp
74	in	in	ADP	_	78 magazine	case
75	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	78 magazine	det
76	powder	powder	NOUN	Number=Sing	78 magazine	compound
77	-	-	PUNCT	_	76 powder	punct
78	magazine	magazine	NOUN	Number=Sing	73 fall	obl
79	of	of	ADP	_	82 audience	case
80	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	82 audience	det
81	expectant	expectant	NOUN	Number=Sing	82 audience	compound
82	audience	audience	NOUN	Number=Sing	78 magazine	nmod
83	.	.	PUNCT	_	73 fall	punct
84	”	"	PUNCT	_	73 fall	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	present	present	a motley phantasmagoria	phantasmagoria			before magician		vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Theme
2	describe	present				a few satirical touches			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
3	express	gerund		magician's opinion				openly property	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opinion=Theme
4	tell speech: assert	present	magician		the people			enough property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent people=Recipient clause=Topic
5	set not said to happen	to-infinitive		people					tree rules
6	think speech: other	gerund							vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	guess	gerund							vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
8	hurt	to-infinitive	magician not said here	nobody					vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nobody=Patient
9	wrap	present	magician	magician's witty oracular judgments		a transparent veil		in a lurid thundercloud	tree rules
10	shoot	gerund	a lurid thundercloud not said here	bright sparks of wit				forth property	vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spark=Theme
11	fall	may	sparks = spark			the powder magazine of the expectant audience			vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in magazine=Location
12	opine		magician						nom opinion «cognition transitive»: poss=agent
13	judge		magician						nom judgment «cognition transitive»: poss=agent
14	spark		wit						nom spark «event intransitive»: of=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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