The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 11, sentence 18
The griffin was busy sweeping the stairs of the Lone Tower, but the dragon saw, and he gave a cry of rage--and it was like twenty engines all letting off steam at the top of their voices inside Cannon Street Station.
Who acts: griffin, dragon, cry, rage · What happens: be, sweep, see, give, let off, cry · To what, where: stairs, cry, steam, top
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (griffin, dragon, cry, rage), 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 griffin | det |
| 2 | griffin | griffin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 busy | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 busy | cop |
| 4 | busy | busy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | sweeping | sweep | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 busy | advcl |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 stairs | det |
| 7 | stairs | stair | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 sweeping | obj |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 11 Tower | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 Tower | det |
| 10 | Lone | Lone | PROPN | Number=Sing | 11 Tower | compound |
| 11 | Tower | Tower | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 stairs | nmod |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 saw | punct |
| 13 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 16 saw | cc |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 dragon | det |
| 15 | dragon | dragon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 saw | nsubj |
| 16 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 busy | conj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 gave | punct |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 gave | cc |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 gave | nsubj |
| 20 | gave | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 saw | conj |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 22 cry | det |
| 22 | cry | cry | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 gave | obj |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 24 rage | case |
| 24 | rage | rage | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 cry | nmod |
| 25 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 31 engines | punct |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 engines | cc |
| 27 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 engines | nsubj |
| 28 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 engines | cop |
| 29 | like | like | ADP | _ | 31 engines | case |
| 30 | twenty | twenty | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 31 engines | nummod |
| 31 | engines | engine | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 busy | parataxis |
| 32 | all | all | ADV | _ | 33 letting | advmod |
| 33 | letting | let | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 busy | advcl |
| 34 | off | off | ADP | _ | 33 letting | compound:prt |
| 35 | steam | steam | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 letting | obj |
| 36 | at | at | ADP | _ | 38 top | case |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 top | det |
| 38 | top | top | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 letting | obl |
| 39 | of | of | ADP | _ | 41 voices | case |
| 40 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 41 voices | nmod:poss |
| 41 | voices | voice | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 top | nmod |
| 42 | inside | inside | ADP | _ | 45 Station | case |
| 43 | Cannon | Cannon | PROPN | Number=Sing | 45 Station | compound |
| 44 | Street | Street | PROPN | Number=Sing | 45 Station | compound |
| 45 | Station | Station | PROPN | Number=Sing | 41 voices | nmod |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 busy | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the griffin | busy property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | sweep | gerund | the griffin not said here | the stairs of the Lone Tower | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme stair=Trajectory | ||||
| 3 | see | past | the dragon | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 4 | give | past | griffin | a cry of rage | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cry=Theme | ||||
| 5 | is | past | cry | like twenty engines | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | let off | gerund | the griffin not said here | steam | the top of engines's voices inside Cannon Street Station | all property | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent steam=Theme at top=Asset | ||
| 7 | cry | rage | nom cry «communication 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: «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/pg23661/11/18/