Peter Pan, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT, sentence 183

It was the stillest silence they had ever known, broken once by a distant lapping, which Peter explained was the wild beasts drinking at the ford, and again by a rasping sound that might have been the branches of trees rubbing together, but he said it was the redskins sharpening their knives.

Who acts: light, stillest silence, distant lapping, wild beasts, rasping sound, Peter · What happens: be, know, break, explain, drink, rasp · To what, where: stillest silence, John, wild beasts, ford, redskins, knives · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (light, stillest silence, distant lapping, wild beasts), 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 silence	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 silence	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 silence	det
4	stillest	still	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 silence	amod
5	silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 known	nsubj:pass
7	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 known	aux
8	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	9 known	advmod
9	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 silence	acl:relcl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 broken	punct
11	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 silence	parataxis
12	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	11 broken	advmod
13	by	by	ADP	_	16 lapping	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 lapping	det
15	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 lapping	amod
16	lapping	lapping	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 broken	obl
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 explained	punct
18	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	20 explained	nsubj
19	Peter	Peter	PROPN	Number=Sing	20 explained	nsubj
20	explained	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 lapping	acl:relcl
21	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 beasts	cop
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 beasts	det
23	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 beasts	amod
24	beasts	beast	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 explained	obj
25	drinking	drink	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	24 beasts	acl
26	at	at	ADP	_	28 ford	case
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 ford	det
28	ford	ford	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 drinking	obl
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 sound	punct
30	and	and	CCONJ	_	35 sound	cc
31	again	again	ADV	_	35 sound	advmod
32	by	by	ADP	_	35 sound	case
33	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	35 sound	det
34	rasping	rasp	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	35 sound	amod
35	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 silence	conj
36	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	44 rubbing	nsubj
37	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	44 rubbing	aux
38	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	44 rubbing	aux
39	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	44 rubbing	aux
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 branches	det
41	branches	branch	NOUN	Number=Plur	44 rubbing	nsubj
42	of	of	ADP	_	43 trees	case
43	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	41 branches	nmod
44	rubbing	rub	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	35 sound	acl:relcl
45	together	together	ADV	_	44 rubbing	advmod
46	,	,	PUNCT	_	49 said	punct
47	but	but	CCONJ	_	49 said	cc
48	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	49 said	nsubj
49	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 silence	parataxis
50	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 redskins	nsubj
51	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	53 redskins	cop
52	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	53 redskins	det
53	redskins	redskin	NOUN	Number=Plur	49 said	ccomp
54	sharpening	sharpen	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	53 redskins	acl
55	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	56 knives	nmod:poss
56	knives	knife	NOUN	Number=Plur	54 sharpening	obj
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 silence	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	light	the stillest silence and a rasping sound				tree rules
2	know	past · perfect · passive	the stillest silence and a rasping sound not said here	John		ever		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus
3	break	participle					by a distant lapping; once property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by lapping=Location
4	explain speech: assert	past	a distant lapping					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	is a	past		the wild beasts				tree rules
6	drink	gerund	the wild beasts not said here		the ford			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	rasp	gerund						vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
8	rub	might · perfect · progressive	a rasping sound				together property	vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme
9	say speech: assert	past	Peter					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
10	is a	past	light	the redskins				tree rules
11	sharpen	gerund	the redskins not said here	John's knives				vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent knife=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: «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Project Gutenberg book 16 (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/pg16/5/183/