The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 36
“They are called rats,” answered the king, who had overheard the question, “and for years we have tried some way of putting an end to them, but it is impossible.
Who acts: king, we, way · What happens: call, answer, overhear, try, put, be · To what, where: courtiers, question, way, end · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, we, way), 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 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 called | punct |
| 2 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 called | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 called | aux:pass |
| 4 | called | call | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 answered | advcl |
| 5 | rats | rat | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 called | xcomp |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 called | punct |
| 7 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 called | punct |
| 8 | answered | answer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 king | det |
| 10 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 answered | obj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 overheard | punct |
| 12 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 14 overheard | nsubj |
| 13 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 overheard | aux |
| 14 | overheard | overhear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 10 king | acl:relcl |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 question | det |
| 16 | question | question | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 overheard | obj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 tried | punct |
| 18 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 24 tried | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 tried | cc |
| 20 | for | for | ADP | _ | 21 years | case |
| 21 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 tried | obl |
| 22 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 24 tried | nsubj |
| 23 | have | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 24 tried | aux |
| 24 | tried | try | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 16 question | acl:relcl |
| 25 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 26 way | det |
| 26 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 tried | obj |
| 27 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 28 putting | mark |
| 28 | putting | put | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 26 way | acl |
| 29 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 30 end | det |
| 30 | end | end | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 putting | obj |
| 31 | to | to | ADP | _ | 32 them | case |
| 32 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 putting | obl |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 impossible | punct |
| 34 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 37 impossible | cc |
| 35 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 impossible | expl |
| 36 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 37 impossible | cop |
| 37 | impossible | impossible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 answered | conj |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 answered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | call in a quote | present · passive | courtiers = courtier | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient | |||||
| 2 | answer speech: assert | past | the king | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | overhear | past · perfect | the king | the question | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer question=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | try in a quote | present · perfect | we | some way | year | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Eventuality | |||
| 5 | put in a quote | gerund | some way not said here | a end | courtiers = courtier | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent end=Goal | |||
| 6 | is in a quote | present | the king not said here | impossible property | tree rules |
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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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/pg2435/18/36/