The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 140

The guinea pigs got small, and the elephants got big, and the men and women and children would have changed sizes too, if they had not had the sense to hold on to themselves, very tight indeed, with both hands; which, of course, the animals could not be expected to know how to do.

Who acts: guinea pigs, elephants, men, sizes, animals · What happens: get, change, not have, hold on, not expect, know · To what, where: sizes, sense, animals · Speech: someone speaks here

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 (guinea pigs, elephants, men, sizes), 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	3 pigs	det
2	guinea	guinea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pigs	compound
3	pigs	pig	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 got	nsubj
4	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 got	xcomp
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 got	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 got	cc
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 elephants	det
9	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 got	nsubj
10	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 got	conj
11	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 got	xcomp
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 changed	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 changed	cc
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 men	det
15	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 changed	nsubj
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 women	cc
17	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 men	conj
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 children	cc
19	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 men	conj
20	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	22 changed	aux
21	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	22 changed	aux
22	changed	change	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 got	parataxis
23	sizes	size	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 changed	obj
24	too	too	ADV	_	22 changed	advmod
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 had	punct
26	if	if	SCONJ	_	30 had	mark
27	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 had	nsubj
28	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 had	aux
29	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	30 had	advmod
30	had	have	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	22 changed	parataxis
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 sense	det
32	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 had	obj
33	to	to	PART	_	34 hold	mark
34	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	32 sense	acl
35	on	on	ADP	_	34 hold	compound:prt
36	to	to	ADP	_	37 themselves	case
37	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	34 hold	obl
38	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 tight	punct
39	very	very	ADV	_	40 tight	advmod
40	tight	tight	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 had	conj
41	indeed	indeed	ADV	_	40 tight	advmod
42	,	,	PUNCT	_	45 hands	punct
43	with	with	ADP	_	45 hands	case
44	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	45 hands	det
45	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	30 had	obl
46	;	;	PUNCT	_	57 expected	punct
47	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	57 expected	obj
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 animals	punct
49	of	of	ADP	_	53 animals	case
50	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	49 of	fixed
51	,	,	PUNCT	_	49 of	punct
52	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	53 animals	det
53	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	57 expected	nsubj:pass
54	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	57 expected	aux
55	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	57 expected	advmod
56	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	57 expected	aux:pass
57	expected	expect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 got	conj
58	to	to	PART	_	59 know	mark
59	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	57 expected	xcomp
60	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	62 do	advmod
61	to	to	PART	_	62 do	mark
62	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	59 know	ccomp
63	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 got	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	get	past	the guinea pigs			small property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	get	past	the elephants			big property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
3	change	would · perfect	the men and women and children	sizes			vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent size=Patient
4	not have a condition, not said to happen	past · perfect	sizes = size	the sense		with both hands	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sense=Patient
5	hold on	to-infinitive	sizes = size not said here	the sense not said here	sizes = size		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
6	not expect	could · passive		the animals			tree rules
7	know not said to happen	to-infinitive	the animals not said here				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
8	do	to-infinitive					vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg23661/4/140/