The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 100
I should not like my dear little niece to be selfish, or to wish to deny a trivial pleasure to a poor, sick dragon, far from his home and friends."
Who acts: I · What happens: not like, be, wish, deny · To what, where: dear little niece, selfish, trivial pleasure
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 4 like | nsubj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 like | aux |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 4 like | advmod |
| 4 | like | like | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 niece | nmod:poss |
| 6 | dear | dear | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 niece | amod |
| 7 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 niece | amod |
| 8 | niece | niece | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 like | obj |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 11 selfish | mark |
| 10 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 11 selfish | cop |
| 11 | selfish | selfish | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 like | xcomp |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 wish | punct |
| 13 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 15 wish | cc |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 wish | mark |
| 15 | wish | wish | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 like | conj |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 deny | mark |
| 17 | deny | deny | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 wish | xcomp |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 pleasure | det |
| 19 | trivial | trivial | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 pleasure | amod |
| 20 | pleasure | pleasure | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 deny | obj |
| 21 | to | to | ADP | _ | 26 dragon | case |
| 22 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 26 dragon | det |
| 23 | poor | poor | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 dragon | amod |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 poor | punct |
| 25 | sick | sick | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 dragon | amod |
| 26 | dragon | dragon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 deny | obl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 far | punct |
| 28 | far | far | ADV | Degree=Pos | 17 deny | advmod |
| 29 | from | from | ADP | _ | 31 home | case |
| 30 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 31 home | nmod:poss |
| 31 | home | home | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 far | obl |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 friends | cc |
| 33 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | 31 home | conj |
| 34 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 like | punct |
| 35 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 like | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not like | should | I | my dear little niece | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot niece=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is a not said to happen | to-infinitive | I not said here | selfish | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | wish | to-infinitive | I not said here | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 4 | deny not said to happen | to-infinitive | I not said here | a trivial pleasure | to a poor sick dragon; far property | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent pleasure=Eventuality |
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/pg23661/4/100/