The Aesop for Children, The Tortoise and the Ducks, sentence 6

He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

Who acts: Tortoise, little short legs · What happens: want, see, be, drag · To what, where: world, back, Tortoise

This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Tortoise and the Ducks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tortoise, little short legs), 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	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 see	mark
4	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 world	det
6	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 see	obj
7	too	too	ADV	_	4 see	advmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 house	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 house	cc
10	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	11 he	expl
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 house	nsubj
12	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 house	cop
13	with	with	ADP	_	15 house	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 house	det
15	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wanted	obl
16	on	on	ADP	_	18 back	case
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 back	nmod:poss
18	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 house	nmod
19	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 legs	cc
20	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 legs	amod
21	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 legs	amod
22	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 back	conj
23	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	26 drag	nsubj
24	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	26 drag	aux
25	hardly	hardly	ADV	_	26 drag	advmod
26	drag	drag	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 legs	acl:relcl
27	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 drag	obj
28	along	along	ADV	_	26 drag	advmod
29	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 wanted	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	want	past	Tortoise				vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	see not said to happen	to-infinitive	Tortoise not said here	the world			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer world=Stimulus
3	is	past	Tortoise		Tortoise's back and little short legs	with a house	tree rules
4	drag	could	little short legs	Tortoise		along, hardly property	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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: «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 19994 (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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