Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 14

Such a survival might almost be said to be due to a tiny sluice of green sap under the gray bark. where it lies in the matter of this book, or what its source if, indeed, it be really there--is more of a mystery to my middle age than it was to my prime.

Who acts: survival, book · What happens: say, be, lie, source, matter · To what, where: survival, matter · 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 (survival, book), 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	Such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	3 survival	det:predet
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 survival	det
3	survival	survival	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 said	nsubj:pass
4	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 said	aux
5	almost	almost	ADV	_	7 said	advmod
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 said	aux:pass
7	said	say	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	to	to	PART	_	14 sluice	mark
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 sluice	cop
10	due	due	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	14 sluice	case
11	to	to	ADP	_	10 due	fixed
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 sluice	det
13	tiny	tiny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 sluice	amod
14	sluice	sluice	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 said	ccomp
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 sap	case
16	green	green	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 sap	amod
17	sap	SAP	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 sluice	nmod
18	under	under	ADP	_	21 bark	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 bark	det
20	gray	gray	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 bark	amod
21	bark	bark	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 sap	nmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	14 sluice	punct
23	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	25 lies	advmod
24	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 lies	nsubj
25	lies	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 sluice	advcl
26	in	in	ADP	_	28 matter	case
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 matter	det
28	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 lies	obl
29	of	of	ADP	_	31 book	case
30	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	31 book	det
31	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 matter	nmod
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 source	punct
33	or	or	CCONJ	_	36 source	cc
34	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	36 source	nsubj
35	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	36 source	nmod:poss
36	source	source	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 said	conj
37	if	if	SCONJ	_	39 indeed	mark
38	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 indeed	punct
39	indeed	indeed	ADV	_	36 source	acl
40	,	,	PUNCT	_	44 there	punct
41	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	44 there	nsubj
42	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	44 there	cop
43	really	really	ADV	_	44 there	advmod
44	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 said	advmod
45	--	--	PUNCT	_	47 more	punct
46	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	47 more	cop
47	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	44 there	conj
48	of	of	ADP	_	50 mystery	case
49	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	50 mystery	det
50	mystery	mystery	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 more	obl
51	to	to	ADP	_	54 age	case
52	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	54 age	nmod:poss
53	middle	middle	ADJ	Degree=Pos	54 age	amod
54	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 mystery	nmod
55	than	than	ADP	_	60 prime	case
56	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	60 prime	nsubj
57	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	60 prime	cop
58	to	to	ADP	_	60 prime	case
59	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	60 prime	nmod:poss
60	prime	prime	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 more	obl
61	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	might · passive		such survival		almost property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic
2	is	to-infinitive				due a tiny sluice; of green sap under the gray bark	tree rules
3	lie	present	survival		the matter of this book		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in matter=Location
4	source						tree rules
5	is	infinitive	survival			there property	tree rules
6	is	present	survival not said here			of a mystery to my middle age; more property	tree rules
7	is	past	survival			than my prime	tree rules
8	matter		this book				nom matter «cognition intransitive»: of=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: «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/pg2306/1/14/