Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXI. a Plantation Witch, sentence 1
The next time the little boy got permission to call upon Uncle Remus, the old man was sitting in his door, with his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his hands, and he appeared to be in great trouble. "
Who acts: little boy, permission, old man, boy · What happens: get, call, sit, bury, appear, be · To what, where: permission, door, face, hands, great trouble · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXXI. a Plantation Witch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little boy, permission, old man, boy), 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 | 3 time | det |
| 2 | next | next | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 time | amod |
| 3 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 got | obl:unmarked |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 boy | det |
| 5 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 boy | amod |
| 6 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 got | nsubj |
| 7 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | permission | permission | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 got | obj |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 call | mark |
| 10 | call | call | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 got | xcomp |
| 11 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 13 Remus | case |
| 12 | Uncle | Uncle | PROPN | Number=Sing | 13 Remus | compound |
| 13 | Remus | Remus | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 call | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 sitting | punct |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 man | det |
| 16 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 man | amod |
| 17 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 sitting | nsubj |
| 18 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 sitting | aux |
| 19 | sitting | sit | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 got | advcl |
| 20 | in | in | ADP | _ | 22 door | case |
| 21 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 door | nmod:poss |
| 22 | door | door | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 sitting | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 elbows | punct |
| 24 | with | with | ADP | _ | 26 elbows | case |
| 25 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 elbows | nmod:poss |
| 26 | elbows | elbow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 sitting | obl |
| 27 | on | on | ADP | _ | 29 knees | case |
| 28 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 29 knees | nmod:poss |
| 29 | knees | knee | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 elbows | nmod |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 face | cc |
| 31 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 face | nmod:poss |
| 32 | face | face | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 elbows | conj |
| 33 | buried | bury | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 32 face | acl |
| 34 | in | in | ADP | _ | 36 hands | case |
| 35 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 36 hands | nmod:poss |
| 36 | hands | hand | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 buried | obl |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 appeared | punct |
| 38 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 appeared | cc |
| 39 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 40 appeared | nsubj |
| 40 | appeared | appear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 got | conj |
| 41 | to | to | PART | _ | 45 trouble | mark |
| 42 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 45 trouble | cop |
| 43 | in | in | ADP | _ | 45 trouble | case |
| 44 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 trouble | amod |
| 45 | trouble | trouble | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 appeared | advcl |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 45 trouble | punct |
| 47 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 45 trouble | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | get | past | the little boy | permission | time | tree rules | |||
| 2 | call | to-infinitive | permission not said here | upon Uncle Remus | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | sit | past · progressive | the old man | man's door | with man's elbows on man's knees and man's face | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in door=Location | |||
| 4 | bury | participle | man's face not said here | man's hands | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in hand=Destination | ||||
| 5 | appear | past | boy | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 6 | is | to-infinitive | boy not said here | great trouble | tree rules |
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/pg2306/34/1/