Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Sons of William the Conqueror., sentence 13

"Fair sir," said one of the men, "answer me this question: If, instead of being a boy, it had pleased God that you should be a bird, what kind of a bird would you rather be?"

Who acts: one, boy, that, you · What happens: say, answer, be, have · To what, where: question, me, pleased God, bird, kind · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, The Sons of William the Conqueror.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one, boy, that, you), 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	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 sir	punct
2	Fair	fair	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 sir	amod
3	sir	sir	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 said	ccomp
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 sir	punct
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 sir	punct
6	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 said	nsubj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 men	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 men	det
10	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 one	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 answer	punct
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 answer	punct
13	answer	answer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 said	conj
14	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	13 answer	obj
15	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	16 question	det
16	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 answer	obj
17	:	:	PUNCT	_	27 had	punct
18	If	if	SCONJ	_	27 had	mark
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 boy	punct
20	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	24 boy	case
21	of	of	ADP	_	20 instead	fixed
22	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	24 boy	cop
23	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	24 boy	det
24	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 had	nsubj
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 boy	punct
26	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 had	nsubj
27	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 said	ccomp
28	pleased	pleased	ADJ	Degree=Pos	29 God	amod
29	God	God	PROPN	Number=Sing	27 had	obj
30	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	35 bird	nsubj
31	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	35 bird	nsubj
32	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	35 bird	aux
33	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	35 bird	cop
34	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	35 bird	det
35	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 had	ccomp
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 kind	punct
37	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	38 kind	det
38	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 be	obl
39	of	of	ADP	_	41 bird	case
40	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	41 bird	det
41	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 kind	nmod
42	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	45 be	aux
43	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	45 be	nsubj
44	rather	rather	ADV	_	45 be	advmod
45	be	be	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	35 bird	conj
46	?	?	PUNCT	_	27 had	punct
47	"	"	PUNCT	_	27 had	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: ask	past	one of the men				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	answer speech: assert in a quote	infinitive	one of the men not said here	this question	me		vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent i=Theme question=Eventuality
3	is in a quote	gerund				instead a boy	tree rules
4	have a condition, not said to happen, in a quote	past	a boy	pleased God			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent god=Patient
5	is a in a quote	should	that	a bird			tree rules
6	be in a quote	would	you	what kind of a bird			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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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