The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund], sentence 234

"But," said Edmund, who always would argue, even in the least favorable circumstances, "how do you account for the town being on the hillside now, instead of by the river as it used to be?"

Who acts: Edmund, you, account · What happens: say, argue, account, be, use · To what, where: least favorable circumstances, hillside · Speech: someone speaks here

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 (Edmund, you, account), 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	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct
2	But	but	CCONJ	_	5 said	cc
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 But	punct
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 But	punct
5	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	Edmund	Edmund	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 said	nsubj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 argue	punct
8	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 argue	nsubj
9	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	11 argue	advmod
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 argue	aux
11	argue	argue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 Edmund	parataxis
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 circumstances	punct
13	even	even	ADV	_	18 circumstances	advmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	18 circumstances	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 circumstances	det
16	least	least	ADJ	Degree=Sup	18 circumstances	amod
17	favorable	favorable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 circumstances	amod
18	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 argue	obl
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 account	punct
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	24 account	punct
21	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	24 account	advmod
22	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	24 account	aux
23	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	24 account	nsubj
24	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 hillside	nsubj
25	for	for	ADP	_	27 town	case
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	27 town	det
27	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 account	nmod
28	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	31 hillside	cop
29	on	on	ADP	_	31 hillside	case
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 hillside	det
31	hillside	hillside	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 circumstances	conj
32	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	38 river	advmod
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 river	punct
34	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	38 river	case
35	of	of	ADP	_	34 instead	fixed
36	by	by	ADP	_	38 river	case
37	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	38 river	det
38	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 hillside	parataxis
39	as	as	SCONJ	_	41 used	mark
40	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 used	nsubj
41	used	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 river	advcl
42	to	to	PART	_	43 be	mark
43	be	be	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	41 used	xcomp
44	?	?	PUNCT	_	31 hillside	punct
45	"	"	PUNCT	_	18 circumstances	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	Edmund			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	argue speech: disagree	would	Edmund	the least favorable circumstances and the hillside	always property	vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	account in a quote	present · do-support	you		for the town	tree rules
4	is in a quote	gerund	account	the hillside		tree rules
5	use in a quote	past	account			vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
6	be in a quote	to-infinitive	account not said here			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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