The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 36, sentence 5

The old people of the town related how they had heard their parents speak of a time when the whole country was so overrun with rats and mice that there was not so much as a grain of corn nor an ear of maize to be gathered in the fields; and it might be out of gratitude to the cats who had rid the country of these plagues that their descendants were allowed to live in peace.

Who acts: old people, people, parents, country, cats, plagues · What happens: relate, hear, speak, be, gather, rid · To what, where: fields, gratitude, country, descendants, peace · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old people, people, parents, country), 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	3 people	det
2	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 people	amod
3	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 related	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 town	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 town	det
6	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 people	nmod
7	related	relate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	11 heard	advmod
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 heard	nsubj
10	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 heard	aux
11	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	14 speak	advcl
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 parents	nmod:poss
13	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 speak	nsubj
14	speak	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 related	ccomp
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 time	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 time	det
17	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 speak	obl
18	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	14 speak	parataxis
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 country	det
20	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 country	amod
21	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 when	nsubj
22	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 rats	cop
23	so	so	ADV	_	26 rats	advmod
24	overrun	overrun	ADV	_	26 rats	advmod
25	with	with	ADP	_	26 rats	case
26	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 country	nmod
27	and	and	CCONJ	_	28 mice	cc
28	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 rats	conj
29	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	31 was	nsubj
30	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	31 was	expl
31	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 rats	acl:relcl
32	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	34 much	advmod
33	so	so	ADV	_	34 much	advmod
34	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 was	nsubj
35	as	as	ADP	_	37 grain	case
36	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	37 grain	det
37	grain	grain	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 much	nmod
38	of	of	ADP	_	39 corn	case
39	corn	corn	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 grain	nmod
40	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	42 ear	cc
41	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	42 ear	det
42	ear	ear	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 corn	conj
43	of	of	ADP	_	44 maize	case
44	maize	maize	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 ear	nmod
45	to	to	PART	_	47 gathered	mark
46	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	47 gathered	aux:pass
47	gathered	gather	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	42 ear	acl
48	in	in	ADP	_	50 fields	case
49	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	50 fields	det
50	fields	field	NOUN	Number=Plur	47 gathered	obl
51	;	;	PUNCT	_	58 gratitude	punct
52	and	and	CCONJ	_	58 gratitude	cc
53	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	58 gratitude	nsubj
54	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	58 gratitude	aux
55	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	58 gratitude	cop
56	out	out	ADP	_	58 gratitude	case
57	of	of	ADP	_	58 gratitude	case
58	gratitude	gratitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 much	conj
59	to	to	ADP	_	61 cats	case
60	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	61 cats	det
61	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	58 gratitude	nmod
62	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	64 rid	nsubj
63	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	64 rid	aux
64	rid	rid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	61 cats	acl:relcl
65	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	66 country	det
66	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	64 rid	obj
67	of	of	ADP	_	69 plagues	case
68	these	this	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	69 plagues	det
69	plagues	plague	NOUN	Number=Plur	66 country	nmod
70	that	that	SCONJ	_	74 allowed	mark
71	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	72 descendants	nmod:poss
72	descendants	descendant	NOUN	Number=Plur	74 allowed	nsubj:pass
73	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	74 allowed	aux:pass
74	allowed	allow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	69 plagues	acl:relcl
75	to	to	PART	_	76 live	mark
76	live	live	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	74 allowed	xcomp
77	in	in	ADP	_	78 peace	case
78	peace	peace	NOUN	Number=Sing	76 live	obl
79	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 related	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	relate	past	the old people of the town					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	hear	past · perfect	people					vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer
3	speak speech: other	present	people's parents			time		vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	is	past					with rats and mice; overrun property	tree rules
5	gather	to-infinitive · passive			the fields			vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»
6	is	might	country		gratitude		to the cats	tree rules
7	rid	past · perfect	the cats	the country of this plagues				vn deprive-10.6.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent country=Source
8	allow	past · passive	this plagues not said here	people's descendants				vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality
9	live not said to happen	to-infinitive	people's descendants not said here		peace			vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in peace=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 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/pg2435/36/5/