The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 1, sentence 97
As they went along, the grave gentlemen, who were the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, explained the things which Lionel did not understand.
Who acts: girls, grave gentlemen, Lionel · What happens: go along, be, explain, not understand · To what, where: Chancellor, things
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girls, grave gentlemen, Lionel), 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 | As | as | SCONJ | _ | 3 went | mark |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 went | nsubj |
| 3 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 explained | advcl |
| 4 | along | along | ADV | _ | 3 went | advmod |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 gentlemen | det |
| 7 | grave | grave | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 gentlemen | amod |
| 8 | gentlemen | gentleman | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 explained | nsubj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 Chancellor | punct |
| 10 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 13 Chancellor | nsubj |
| 11 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 Chancellor | cop |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 Chancellor | det |
| 13 | Chancellor | Chancellor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 19 explained | nsubj |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 Minister | cc |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 Minister | det |
| 16 | Prime | Prime | PROPN | _ | 17 Minister | compound |
| 17 | Minister | Minister | PROPN | Number=Sing | 13 Chancellor | conj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 Chancellor | punct |
| 19 | explained | explain | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 things | det |
| 21 | things | thing | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 explained | obj |
| 22 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 26 understand | obj |
| 23 | Lionel | Lionel | PROPN | Number=Sing | 26 understand | nsubj |
| 24 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 understand | aux |
| 25 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 26 understand | advmod |
| 26 | understand | understand | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 things | acl:relcl |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 19 explained | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go along | past | girls = girl | along property | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is a | past | the Chancellor and the Prime Minister | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | explain speech: assert | past | the grave gentlemen | the things | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Topic | ||||
| 4 | not understand | past · do-support | Lionel | the things | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus |
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: «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Project Gutenberg book 23661 (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/pg23661/1/97/