The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 50
Then there was a sad silence, and presently the people whose windows looked that way saw the Dragon come walking down the steps of the General Post Office spitting fire and smoke, together with tufts of Manticora fur, and the fragments of the registered letters.
Who acts: people, way, Dragon, General Post Office · What happens: be, see, come, walk down, spit, register · To what, where: steps, fire, General Post Office · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, way, Dragon, General Post Office), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 was | advmod |
| 2 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 3 was | expl |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 looked | cop |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 silence | det |
| 5 | sad | sad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 silence | amod |
| 6 | silence | silence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 was | nsubj |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 looked | punct |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 looked | cc |
| 9 | presently | presently | ADV | _ | 14 looked | advmod |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 people | det |
| 11 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 looked | nsubj |
| 12 | whose | whose | PRON | Poss=Yes PronType=Rel | 13 windows | nmod:poss |
| 13 | windows | window | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 people | nmod |
| 14 | looked | look | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 15 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 16 way | det |
| 16 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 saw | nsubj |
| 17 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 looked | conj |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 Dragon | det |
| 19 | Dragon | Dragon | PROPN | Number=Sing | 20 come | nsubj |
| 20 | come | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 17 saw | ccomp |
| 21 | walking | walk | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 20 come | xcomp |
| 22 | down | down | ADP | _ | 24 steps | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 steps | det |
| 24 | steps | step | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 walking | obl |
| 25 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 Office | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 Office | det |
| 27 | General | General | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 Office | amod |
| 28 | Post | Post | PROPN | Number=Sing | 29 Office | compound |
| 29 | Office | Office | PROPN | Number=Sing | 24 steps | nmod |
| 30 | spitting | spit | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 29 Office | acl |
| 31 | fire | fire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 spitting | obj |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 smoke | cc |
| 33 | smoke | smoke | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 fire | conj |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 tufts | punct |
| 35 | together | together | ADV | _ | 37 tufts | advmod |
| 36 | with | with | ADP | _ | 37 tufts | case |
| 37 | tufts | tuft | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 saw | obl |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 40 fur | case |
| 39 | Manticora | Manticora | PROPN | Number=Sing | 40 fur | compound |
| 40 | fur | fur | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 tufts | nmod |
| 41 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 44 fragments | punct |
| 42 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 44 fragments | cc |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 fragments | det |
| 44 | fragments | fragment | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 tufts | conj |
| 45 | of | of | ADP | _ | 48 letters | case |
| 46 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 48 letters | det |
| 47 | registered | register | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 48 letters | amod |
| 48 | letters | letter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 44 fragments | nmod |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 14 looked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the people the people the people's windows's windows | look, presently property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | see | past | that way | with tufts of Manticora fur and the fragments of the registered letters | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | come | present | the Dragon | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | walk down | gerund | the Dragon not said here | the steps of the General Post Office | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme step=Trajectory | ||||
| 5 | spit | gerund | the General Post Office not said here | fire and smoke | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent fire=Theme | ||||
| 6 | register | participle | vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 7 | step | the General Post Office | nom step «act transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg23661/2/50/