The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 35
The ground was quite flat, and covered with smooth, hard snow, which shone and sparkled like the top of a birthday cake that has been iced at home.
Who acts: ground, smooth hard snow · What happens: be, cover, shine, sparkle, ice · To what, where: birthday cake, home
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ground, smooth hard snow), 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 | 2 ground | det |
| 2 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 flat | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 flat | cop |
| 4 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 5 flat | advmod |
| 5 | flat | flat | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 covered | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 covered | cc |
| 8 | covered | cover | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 flat | conj |
| 9 | with | with | ADP | _ | 13 snow | case |
| 10 | smooth | smooth | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 snow | amod |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 smooth | punct |
| 12 | hard | hard | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 snow | amod |
| 13 | snow | snow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 covered | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 shone | punct |
| 15 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 16 shone | nsubj |
| 16 | shone | shine | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 snow | acl:relcl |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 sparkled | cc |
| 18 | sparkled | sparkle | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 shone | conj |
| 19 | like | like | ADP | _ | 21 top | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 top | det |
| 21 | top | top | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 sparkled | obl |
| 22 | of | of | ADP | _ | 25 cake | case |
| 23 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 25 cake | det |
| 24 | birthday | birthday | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 cake | compound |
| 25 | cake | cake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 top | nmod |
| 26 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 29 iced | nsubj:pass |
| 27 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 29 iced | aux |
| 28 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 29 iced | aux:pass |
| 29 | iced | ice | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 25 cake | acl:relcl |
| 30 | at | at | ADP | _ | 31 home | case |
| 31 | home | home | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 iced | obl |
| 32 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 flat | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the ground | flat property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | cover | participle | the ground not said here | with smooth hard snow | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with snow=Theme | ||||
| 3 | shine | past | smooth hard snow | vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | sparkle | participle | smooth hard snow not said here | like the top of a birthday cake | vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | ice | present · perfect · passive | a birthday cake | home | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: subject=Destination |
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/pg23661/8/35/