The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 64

They would creep up to him softly on the grass, as he was stooping to fill his pail, and just as they stretched out their hands to seize him, he vanished before their eyes.

Who acts: thieves, man · What happens: creep up, stoop, fill, stretch out, seize, vanish · To what, where: man, grass, pail, hands

This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thieves, man), 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	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 creep	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 creep	aux
3	creep	creep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	up	up	ADP	_	3 creep	compound:prt
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 him	case
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 creep	obl
7	softly	softly	ADV	_	3 creep	advmod
8	on	on	ADP	_	10 grass	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 grass	det
10	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 creep	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 stooping	punct
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	15 stooping	mark
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 stooping	nsubj
14	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 stooping	aux
15	stooping	stoop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 creep	advcl
16	to	to	PART	_	17 fill	mark
17	fill	fill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 stooping	xcomp
18	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 pail	nmod:poss
19	pail	pail	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 fill	obj
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 stretched	punct
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 stretched	cc
22	just	just	ADV	_	25 stretched	advmod
23	as	as	SCONJ	_	25 stretched	mark
24	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 stretched	nsubj
25	stretched	stretch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 stooping	parataxis
26	out	out	ADP	_	25 stretched	compound:prt
27	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	28 hands	nmod:poss
28	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 stretched	obj
29	to	to	PART	_	30 seize	mark
30	seize	seize	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	25 stretched	advcl
31	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 seize	obj
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 vanished	punct
33	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	34 vanished	nsubj
34	vanished	vanish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	25 stretched	conj
35	before	before	ADP	_	37 eyes	case
36	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	37 eyes	nmod:poss
37	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	34 vanished	obl
38	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 creep	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	creep up	would	thieves = thief		man	the grass		softly property	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to he=Destination
2	stoop	past · progressive	man						tree rules
3	fill	to-infinitive	man not said here	man's pail					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent pail=Patient
4	stretch out	past	thieves = thief	thieves's hands					vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent hand=Patient
5	seize	to-infinitive	thieves = thief not said here	man					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
6	vanish	past	man				before thieves's eyes		vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/pg2435/20/64/