Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Grace Darling., sentence 26
The fierce waves broke against the boat, and it would have been dashed in pieces, had it not been for the strength and skill of the brave girl.
Who acts: fierce waves · What happens: break, dash, have, not be · To what, where: boat, pieces
This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Grace Darling.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fierce waves), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 waves | det |
| 2 | fierce | fierce | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 waves | amod |
| 3 | waves | wave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 broke | nsubj |
| 4 | broke | break | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | against | against | ADP | _ | 7 boat | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 boat | det |
| 7 | boat | boat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 broke | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 dashed | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 dashed | cc |
| 10 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 dashed | nsubj:pass |
| 11 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 14 dashed | aux |
| 12 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 14 dashed | aux |
| 13 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 14 dashed | aux:pass |
| 14 | dashed | dash | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 broke | conj |
| 15 | in | in | ADP | _ | 16 pieces | case |
| 16 | pieces | piece | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 dashed | obl |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 had | punct |
| 18 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 broke | conj |
| 19 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 had | obj |
| 20 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 24 strength | advmod |
| 21 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 24 strength | cop |
| 22 | for | for | ADP | _ | 24 strength | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 strength | det |
| 24 | strength | strength | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 had | obj |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 skill | cc |
| 26 | skill | skill | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 strength | conj |
| 27 | of | of | ADP | _ | 30 girl | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 girl | det |
| 29 | brave | brave | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 girl | amod |
| 30 | girl | girl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 skill | nmod |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 broke | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | break | past | the fierce waves | the boat | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against boat=Location | ||||
| 2 | dash | would · perfect · passive | boat | pieces | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: subject=Theme in piece=Trajectory | ||||
| 3 | have | past | the fierce waves not said here | boat | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient | ||||
| 4 | not is | participle | for the strength and skill of the brave girl | tree rules |
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: «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (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/pg18442/22/26/