Fifty Famous Stories Retold, A Laconic Answer., sentence 5

One of the strange rules which the Spartans had, was that they should speak briefly, and never use more words than were needed.

Who acts: Spartans · What happens: have, be, not use, need · To what, where: strange rules, more words

This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, A Laconic Answer.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Spartans), 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	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 rules	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rules	det
4	strange	strange	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 rules	amod
5	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 One	nmod
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 had	obj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Spartans	det
8	Spartans	Spartan	PROPN	Number=Plur	9 had	nsubj
9	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 rules	acl:relcl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 speak	punct
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 speak	cop
12	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 speak	mark
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 speak	nsubj
14	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 speak	aux
15	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 One	parataxis
16	briefly	briefly	ADV	_	15 speak	advmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 use	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	20 use	cc
19	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	20 use	advmod
20	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 speak	conj
21	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	22 words	amod
22	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 use	obj
23	than	than	SCONJ	_	25 needed	mark
24	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	25 needed	aux:pass
25	needed	need	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	22 words	acl
26	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 One	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	have	past	the Spartans	the strange rules		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Patient
2	is	should · past	Spartans = spartan		briefly, speak property	tree rules
3	not use	infinitive	Spartans = spartan not said here	more words		vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient
4	need	past · passive		more words not said here		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»

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.

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