The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 9, sentence 15

The moths ate and ate and ate till the sealskin dwarfs, being sealskin throughout, even to the empty hearts of them, were eaten down to the very life--and they fell one by one on the snow and so came to their end.

Who acts: moths, dwarfs · What happens: eat, be, eat down, fall, come · To what, where: sealskin, one, end

This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (moths, dwarfs), 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 moths	det
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ate	nsubj
3	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 ate	cc
5	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 ate	conj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 ate	cc
7	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 ate	conj
8	till	till	ADP	_	11 dwarfs	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 dwarfs	det
10	sealskin	sealskin	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 dwarfs	compound
11	dwarfs	dwarf	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 ate	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 sealskin	punct
13	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 sealskin	cop
14	sealskin	sealskin	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ate	parataxis
15	throughout	throughout	ADP	_	21 hearts	case
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 hearts	punct
17	even	even	ADV	_	21 hearts	advmod
18	to	to	ADP	_	21 hearts	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 hearts	det
20	empty	empty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 hearts	amod
21	hearts	heart	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 sealskin	nmod
22	of	of	ADP	_	23 them	case
23	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 hearts	nmod
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 eaten	punct
25	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 eaten	aux:pass
26	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 ate	conj
27	down	down	ADP	_	26 eaten	compound:prt
28	to	to	ADP	_	31 life	case
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 life	det
30	very	very	ADV	_	31 life	advmod
31	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 eaten	obl
32	--	--	PUNCT	_	35 fell	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	35 fell	cc
34	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 fell	nsubj
35	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 ate	parataxis
36	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	35 fell	obj
37	by	by	ADP	_	38 one	case
38	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	36 one	nmod
39	on	on	ADP	_	41 snow	case
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 snow	det
41	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 one	nmod
42	and	and	CCONJ	_	44 came	cc
43	so	so	ADV	_	44 came	advmod
44	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	35 fell	conj
45	to	to	ADP	_	47 end	case
46	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	47 end	nmod:poss
47	end	end	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 came	obl
48	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 ate	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	eat	past	the moths				vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	eat	past	the moths not said here				vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	eat	past	the moths not said here		till the sealskin dwarfs		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	is a	gerund		sealskin	throughout the empty hearts of dwarfs		tree rules
5	eat down	past · passive	the moths not said here			to the life	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»
6	fall	past	dwarfs = dwarf	one		by one on the snow	vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient one=Result
7	come	past	dwarfs = dwarf not said here		to dwarfs's end		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to end=Initial_Location

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.

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