The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 36

This sort of hide-and-seek amused people at first, but by-and-by it began to get on their nerves: and if you don't know what that means, ask Mother to tell you next time you are playing blind man's buff when she has a headache.

Who acts: sort, you, that, animal · What happens: seek, begin, get, not know, mean, ask · To what, where: amused people, nerves, Mother, you, buff, headache · 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 (sort, you, that, animal), 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	This	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 sort	det
2	sort	sort	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 seek	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 hide	case
4	hide	hide	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sort	nmod
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 seek	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 seek	cc
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 and	punct
8	seek	seek	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	amused	amused	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 people	amod
10	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 seek	obj
11	at	at	ADP	_	12 first	case
12	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	8 seek	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 began	punct
14	but	but	CCONJ	_	21 began	cc
15	by	by	SCONJ	_	21 began	mark
16	-	-	PUNCT	_	21 began	punct
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 began	cc
18	-	-	PUNCT	_	17 and	punct
19	by	by	SCONJ	_	21 began	mark
20	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 began	nsubj
21	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 seek	parataxis
22	to	to	PART	_	23 get	mark
23	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	21 began	xcomp
24	on	on	ADP	_	26 nerves	case
25	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	26 nerves	nmod:poss
26	nerves	nerve	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 get	obl
27	:	:	PUNCT	_	38 ask	punct
28	and	and	CCONJ	_	38 ask	cc
29	if	if	SCONJ	_	33 know	mark
30	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	33 know	nsubj
31	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	33 know	aux
32	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	33 know	advmod
33	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	38 ask	advcl
34	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	36 means	obj
35	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	36 means	nsubj
36	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	33 know	ccomp
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 know	punct
38	ask	ask	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	21 began	parataxis
39	Mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 ask	obj
40	to	to	PART	_	41 tell	mark
41	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	38 ask	xcomp
42	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	41 tell	iobj
43	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	44 time	amod
44	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 tell	obj
45	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	47 playing	nsubj
46	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	47 playing	aux
47	playing	play	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	44 time	acl:relcl
48	blind	blind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	49 man	amod
49	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 buff	nmod:poss
50	's	's	PART	_	49 man	case
51	buff	buff	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 playing	obj
52	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	54 has	advmod
53	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	54 has	nsubj
54	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	41 tell	advcl
55	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	56 headache	det
56	headache	headache	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 has	obj
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 seek	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	roles by
1	seek	infinitive	this sort of hide	amused people				vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent people=Theme at first=Location
2	begin	past	sort					vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	get	to-infinitive	sort not said here			people's nerves		vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent on nerve=Source
4	not know a condition, not said to happen	present · do-support	you					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
5	mean	present	that					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic
6	ask speech: ask	infinitive			Mother			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent mother=Recipient clause=Topic
7	tell speech: assert not said to happen	to-infinitive			you		time	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient
8	play	present · progressive	you	blind man's buff				vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent buff=Theme
9	have	present	animal	a headache				vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent headache=Patient
10	sort			hide				nom sort «cognition 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/pg23661/4/36/