Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, sentence 115

THE RIVERS joined together to complain to the Sea, saying, “Why is it that when we flow into your tides so potable and sweet, you work in us such a change, and make us salty and unfit to drink?”

Who acts: RIVERS, we, you, us, your · What happens: join, complain, say, be, flow, work · To what, where: Sea, tides, change, us · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (RIVERS, we, you, us), 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	2 RIVERS	det
2	RIVERS	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 joined	nsubj
3	joined	join	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	together	together	ADV	_	3 joined	advmod
5	to	to	PART	_	6 complain	mark
6	complain	complain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 joined	advcl
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 Sea	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Sea	det
9	Sea	Sea	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 complain	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 saying	punct
11	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 joined	advcl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 it	punct
13	“	"	PUNCT	_	16 it	punct
14	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	16 it	advmod
15	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 it	cop
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 saying	ccomp
17	that	that	SCONJ	_	30 work	mark
18	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	20 flow	advmod
19	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	20 flow	nsubj
20	flow	flow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	30 work	advcl
21	into	into	ADP	_	23 tides	case
22	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 tides	nmod:poss
23	tides	tide	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 flow	obl
24	so	so	ADV	_	25 potable	advmod
25	potable	potable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 flow	advcl
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 sweet	cc
27	sweet	sweet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 potable	conj
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 flow	punct
29	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	30 work	nsubj
30	work	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 it	advcl
31	in	in	ADP	_	32 us	case
32	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	30 work	obl
33	such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	35 change	det:predet
34	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	35 change	det
35	change	change	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 work	obl
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 make	punct
37	and	and	CCONJ	_	38 make	cc
38	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 work	advcl
39	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	38 make	obj
40	salty	salty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	38 make	xcomp
41	and	and	CCONJ	_	42 unfit	cc
42	unfit	unfit	ADJ	Degree=Pos	40 salty	conj
43	to	to	PART	_	44 drink	mark
44	drink	drink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	42 unfit	xcomp
45	?	?	PUNCT	_	30 work	punct
46	”	"	PUNCT	_	16 it	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	join	past	the RIVERS				together property	vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	complain speech: other	to-infinitive	the RIVERS not said here		the Sea			vn complain-37.8 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to sea=Recipient
3	say speech: ask	gerund	the RIVERS not said here					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	is a in a quote	present		sea				tree rules
5	flow in a quote	present	we			your tides		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
6	work in a quote	present	you	such change			in us	vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in we=Theme
7	make in a quote	infinitive	you not said here	us			salty property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset we=Product
8	drink in a quote	to-infinitive	us not said here					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
9	tide in a quote		your					nom tide «event intransitive»: poss=agent

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.

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