Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 104

One day an Irishman who had heard people talking about "mares' nests" was going along the big road--it is always the big road in contradistinction to neighborhood paths and by-paths, called in the vernacular "nigh-cuts"--when he came to a pumpkin--patch.

Who acts: heard people, anecdote, negro · What happens: hear, talk, go, be, call, come · To what, where: Irishman, big road, contradistinction, neighborhood paths, vernacular, pumpkin · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Dear Frost:. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heard people, anecdote, negro), 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	2 day	nummod
2	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 heard	obl:unmarked
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 Irishman	det
4	Irishman	Irishman	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 heard	nsubj:pass
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 heard	nsubj
6	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 heard	aux
7	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 people	amod
8	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 going	nsubj
9	talking	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 people	acl
10	about	about	ADP	_	14 nests	case
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 nests	punct
12	mares	mare	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 nests	nmod:poss
13	'	's	PART	_	12 mares	case
14	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 talking	obl
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 nests	punct
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 going	aux
17	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
18	along	along	ADP	_	21 road	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 road	det
20	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 road	amod
21	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 going	obl
22	--	--	PUNCT	_	28 road	punct
23	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	28 road	nsubj
24	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	28 road	cop
25	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	28 road	advmod
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 road	det
27	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 road	amod
28	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 going	obl
29	in	in	ADP	_	30 contradistinction	case
30	contradistinction	contradistinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 road	nmod
31	to	to	ADP	_	33 paths	case
32	neighborhood	neighborhood	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 paths	compound
33	paths	path	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 road	nmod
34	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 paths	cc
35	by	by	ADP	_	37 paths	case
36	-	-	PUNCT	_	35 by	punct
37	paths	path	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 paths	conj
38	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 called	punct
39	called	call	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	33 paths	acl
40	in	in	ADP	_	42 vernacular	case
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 vernacular	det
42	vernacular	vernacular	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 called	obl
43	"	"	PUNCT	_	46 cuts	punct
44	nigh	nigh	ADV	_	46 cuts	advmod
45	-	-	PUNCT	_	44 nigh	punct
46	cuts	cut	NOUN	Number=Plur	42 vernacular	appos
47	"	"	PUNCT	_	46 cuts	punct
48	--	--	PUNCT	_	51 came	punct
49	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	51 came	advmod
50	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	51 came	nsubj
51	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	28 road	conj
52	to	to	ADP	_	54 pumpkin	case
53	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	54 pumpkin	det
54	pumpkin	pumpkin	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 came	obl
55	--	--	PUNCT	_	56 patch	punct
56	patch	patch	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 pumpkin	conj
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	17 going	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hear	past · perfect · passive		a Irishman		day		vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus
2	talk	gerund	heard people not said here				about mares's nests	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about nest=Topic
3	go	past · progressive	heard people		the big road			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme along road=Initial_Location
4	is a	present	anecdote	the big road	contradistinction		to neighborhood paths and paths; always property	tree rules
5	call	participle		neighborhood paths and paths not said here	the vernacular			vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	come	past	negro		a pumpkin and patch			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to pumpkin=Initial_Location

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: «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Project Gutenberg book 2306 (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/pg2306/1/104/