The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 59

The sound of the cracking was the only thing that broke the great white silence in the midst of which the dragon lay like an enormous jewel, and the straight flames went up all around him like the stalks of tall lilies.

Who acts: sound, only thing, dragon, straight flames · What happens: be, break, lay, go up · To what, where: only thing, great white silence, midst

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 (sound, only thing, dragon, straight flames), 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 sound	det
2	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 thing	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 cracking	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cracking	det
5	cracking	cracking	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sound	nmod
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 thing	cop
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 thing	det
8	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 thing	amod
9	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
10	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 broke	nsubj
11	broke	break	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 thing	acl:relcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 silence	det
13	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 silence	amod
14	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 silence	amod
15	silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 broke	obj
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 midst	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 midst	det
18	midst	midst	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 broke	obl
19	of	of	ADP	_	20 which	case
20	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	23 lay	obl
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 dragon	det
22	dragon	dragon	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 lay	nsubj
23	lay	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 midst	acl:relcl
24	like	like	ADP	_	27 jewel	case
25	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	27 jewel	det
26	enormous	enormous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	27 jewel	amod
27	jewel	jewel	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 lay	obl
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 went	punct
29	and	and	CCONJ	_	33 went	cc
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 flames	det
31	straight	straight	ADJ	Degree=Pos	32 flames	amod
32	flames	flame	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 went	nsubj
33	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 thing	conj
34	up	up	ADP	_	33 went	compound:prt
35	all	all	ADV	_	37 him	advmod
36	around	around	ADP	_	37 him	case
37	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 went	obl
38	like	like	ADP	_	40 stalks	case
39	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	40 stalks	det
40	stalks	stalk	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 went	obl
41	of	of	ADP	_	43 lilies	case
42	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	43 lilies	amod
43	lilies	lily	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 stalks	nmod
44	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 thing	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the sound of the cracking	the only thing			tree rules
2	break	past	the only thing	the great white silence	the midst		vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer silence=Patient
3	lay	present	the dragon			of the midst; like a enormous jewel	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	go up	past	the straight flames			around dragon; like the stalks of tall lilies	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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/pg23661/8/59/