The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund], sentence 106

In the middle of that plain the gray town lay, with its strong walls with the holes pierced for the archers, and its square towers with holes for dropping melted lead on the heads of strangers; its bridges and its steeples; the quiet river edged with willow and alder; and the pleasant green garden place in the middle of the town, where people sat on holidays to smoke their pipes and listen to the band.

Who acts: gray town, people · What happens: plain, lie, pierce, drop, melt, edge · To what, where: square towers, middle, holes, melted lead, heads, quiet river

This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gray town, people), 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 middle	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 middle	det
3	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 plain	obl
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 that	case
5	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	6 plain	obl
6	plain	plain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 town	det
8	gray	gray	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 town	compound
9	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 lay	nsubj
10	lay	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 plain	ccomp
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 walls	punct
12	with	with	ADP	_	15 walls	case
13	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 walls	nmod:poss
14	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 walls	amod
15	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 lay	obl
16	with	with	ADP	_	18 holes	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 holes	det
18	holes	hole	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 walls	nmod
19	pierced	pierce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 holes	acl
20	for	for	ADP	_	22 archers	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 archers	det
22	archers	archer	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 pierced	obl
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 towers	punct
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 towers	cc
25	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	27 towers	nmod:poss
26	square	square	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 towers	compound
27	towers	tower	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 plain	obl
28	with	with	ADP	_	29 holes	case
29	holes	hole	NOUN	Number=Plur	27 towers	nmod
30	for	for	SCONJ	_	31 dropping	mark
31	dropping	drop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 plain	advcl
32	melted	melt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	33 lead	amod
33	lead	lead	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 dropping	obj
34	on	on	ADP	_	36 heads	case
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 heads	det
36	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	31 dropping	obl
37	of	of	ADP	_	38 strangers	case
38	strangers	stranger	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 heads	nmod
39	;	;	PUNCT	_	41 bridges	punct
40	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	41 bridges	nmod:poss
41	bridges	bridge	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 plain	obl
42	and	and	CCONJ	_	44 steeples	cc
43	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	44 steeples	nmod:poss
44	steeples	steeple	NOUN	Number=Plur	41 bridges	conj
45	;	;	PUNCT	_	48 river	punct
46	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	48 river	det
47	quiet	quiet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	48 river	amod
48	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 plain	parataxis
49	edged	edge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	48 river	acl
50	with	with	ADP	_	51 willow	case
51	willow	willow	NOUN	Number=Sing	49 edged	obl
52	and	and	CCONJ	_	53 alder	cc
53	alder	alder	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 willow	conj
54	;	;	PUNCT	_	60 place	punct
55	and	and	CCONJ	_	60 place	cc
56	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	60 place	det
57	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	60 place	amod
58	green	green	ADJ	Degree=Pos	60 place	amod
59	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	60 place	compound
60	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 plain	obl
61	in	in	ADP	_	63 middle	case
62	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	63 middle	det
63	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	60 place	nmod
64	of	of	ADP	_	66 town	case
65	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	66 town	det
66	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	63 middle	nmod
67	,	,	PUNCT	_	70 sat	punct
68	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	70 sat	advmod
69	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	70 sat	nsubj
70	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	66 town	acl:relcl
71	on	on	ADP	_	72 holidays	case
72	holidays	holiday	NOUN	Number=Plur	70 sat	obl
73	to	to	PART	_	74 smoke	mark
74	smoke	smoke	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	70 sat	advcl
75	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	76 pipes	nmod:poss
76	pipes	pipe	NOUN	Number=Plur	74 smoke	obj
77	and	and	CCONJ	_	78 listen	cc
78	listen	listen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	74 smoke	conj
79	to	to	ADP	_	81 band	case
80	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	81 band	det
81	band	band	NOUN	Number=Sing	78 listen	obl
82	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 plain	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	plain	present		town's square towers with holes	the middle	of that; town's bridges and town's steeples obl; the pleasant green garden place in the middle of the town obl	tree rules
2	lie	past	the gray town			with town's strong walls with the holes	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	pierce	participle		the holes not said here		for the archers	vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	drop	gerund		melted lead	the heads of strangers		vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent lead=Theme on head=Destination
5	melt	participle					vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
6	edge	participle		the quiet river not said here		with willow and alder	vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with willow=Theme
7	sit	past	people		holidays		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on holiday=Location
8	smoke	to-infinitive	people not said here	people's pipes			vn eat-39.1-1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent pipe=Source
9	listen	infinitive	people not said here			to the band	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to band=Theme

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/pg23661/14/106/