The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 5, sentence 79
And besides, it would have been a mere waste of Princesses to offer rewards for killing dragons, because everybody killed as many dragons as they could quite out of their own heads and without rewards at all, just to get the nasty things out of the way.
Who acts: family, mere waste · What happens: be, offer, kill, get · To what, where: mere waste, rewards, dragons, many dragons, all, nasty things
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (family, mere waste), 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 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 killed | cc |
| 2 | besides | besides | INTJ | _ | 10 waste | discourse |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 besides | punct |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 waste | nsubj |
| 5 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 10 waste | aux |
| 6 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 10 waste | aux |
| 7 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 10 waste | cop |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 waste | det |
| 9 | mere | mere | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 waste | amod |
| 10 | waste | waste | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 killed | nsubj |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 Princesses | case |
| 12 | Princesses | princess | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 waste | nmod |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 offer | mark |
| 14 | offer | offer | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 Princesses | acl |
| 15 | rewards | reward | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 offer | obj |
| 16 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 17 killing | mark |
| 17 | killing | kill | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 14 offer | advcl |
| 18 | dragons | dragon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 killing | obj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 killed | punct |
| 20 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 22 killed | mark |
| 21 | everybody | everybody | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Tot | 22 killed | nsubj |
| 22 | killed | kill | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 23 | as | as | ADV | _ | 24 many | advmod |
| 24 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 dragons | amod |
| 25 | dragons | dragon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 killed | obj |
| 26 | as | as | ADP | _ | 34 heads | case |
| 27 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 heads | nsubj |
| 28 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 34 heads | aux |
| 29 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 34 heads | advmod |
| 30 | out | out | ADP | _ | 34 heads | case |
| 31 | of | of | ADP | _ | 34 heads | case |
| 32 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 34 heads | nmod:poss |
| 33 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 34 heads | amod |
| 34 | heads | head | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 killed | obl |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 rewards | cc |
| 36 | without | without | ADP | _ | 37 rewards | case |
| 37 | rewards | reward | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 heads | conj |
| 38 | at | at | ADP | _ | 39 all | case |
| 39 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 22 killed | obl |
| 40 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 get | punct |
| 41 | just | just | ADV | _ | 43 get | advmod |
| 42 | to | to | PART | _ | 43 get | mark |
| 43 | get | get | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 22 killed | parataxis |
| 44 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 46 things | det |
| 45 | nasty | nasty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 things | amod |
| 46 | things | thing | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 get | obj |
| 47 | out | out | ADP | _ | 50 way | case |
| 48 | of | of | ADP | _ | 50 way | case |
| 49 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 50 way | det |
| 50 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 get | obl |
| 51 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 22 killed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | would · perfect | family | a mere waste | of Princesses | tree rules | |||
| 2 | offer | to-infinitive | family not said here | rewards | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent reward=Theme | ||||
| 3 | kill | gerund | family not said here | dragons | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dragon=Theme | ||||
| 4 | kill | past | a mere waste | many dragons | all | as rewards's own heads and rewards | vn spend_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent dragon=Duration as head=Attribute | ||
| 5 | get | to-infinitive | the nasty things | the way | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
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/pg23661/5/79/