Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 13, sentence 53
While he was in the act of throwing himself over, his owner seized him by the tail, endeavoring to pull him back.
Who acts: friend, act, owner · What happens: be, throw over, seize, endeavor, pull back · To what, where: act, friend
This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (friend, act, owner), 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 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 6 act | mark |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 act | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 act | cop |
| 4 | in | in | ADP | _ | 6 act | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 act | det |
| 6 | act | act | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 seized | advcl |
| 7 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 8 throwing | mark |
| 8 | throwing | throw | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 6 act | acl |
| 9 | himself | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 8 throwing | obj |
| 10 | over | over | ADP | _ | 8 throwing | compound:prt |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 act | punct |
| 12 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 owner | nmod:poss |
| 13 | owner | owner | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 seized | nsubj |
| 14 | seized | seize | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 15 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 seized | obj |
| 16 | by | by | ADP | _ | 18 tail | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 tail | det |
| 18 | tail | tail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 seized | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 endeavoring | punct |
| 20 | endeavoring | endeavor | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 14 seized | advcl |
| 21 | to | to | PART | _ | 22 pull | mark |
| 22 | pull | pull | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 20 endeavoring | xcomp |
| 23 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 pull | obj |
| 24 | back | back | ADV | _ | 22 pull | advmod |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 14 seized | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | friend | the act | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | throw over | gerund | the act not said here | friend | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme | ||||
| 3 | seize | past | friend's owner | friend | by the tail | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | |||
| 4 | endeavor | gerund | friend's owner not said here | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | pull back | to-infinitive | friend's owner not said here | friend | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: agent=Agent he=Result |
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: «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 21 (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/pg21/15/53/