Grimms' Fairy Tales, Tom Thumb, sentence 58
Meantime the thieves were frightened, and ran off a little way; but at last they plucked up their hearts, and said, ‘The little urchin is only trying to make fools of us.’
Who acts: you, money, little urchin · What happens: meantime, frighten, run off, pluck up, say, try · To what, where: thieves, little way, hearts, last, fools · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Tom Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, money, little urchin), 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 | Meantime | meantime | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 thieves | det |
| 3 | thieves | thief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 frightened | nsubj:pass |
| 4 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 frightened | aux:pass |
| 5 | frightened | frighten | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 1 Meantime | ccomp |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 ran | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 ran | cc |
| 8 | ran | run | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 1 Meantime | parataxis |
| 9 | off | off | ADP | _ | 8 ran | compound:prt |
| 10 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 way | det |
| 11 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 way | amod |
| 12 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 ran | obl:unmarked |
| 13 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 18 plucked | punct |
| 14 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 18 plucked | cc |
| 15 | at | at | ADP | _ | 16 last | case |
| 16 | last | last | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 plucked | obl |
| 17 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 plucked | nsubj |
| 18 | plucked | pluck | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 1 Meantime | parataxis |
| 19 | up | up | ADP | _ | 18 plucked | compound:prt |
| 20 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 21 hearts | nmod:poss |
| 21 | hearts | heart | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 plucked | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 said | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 said | cc |
| 24 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 plucked | conj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 trying | punct |
| 26 | ‘ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 32 trying | punct |
| 27 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 urchin | det |
| 28 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 urchin | amod |
| 29 | urchin | urchin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 trying | nsubj |
| 30 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 32 trying | aux |
| 31 | only | only | ADV | _ | 32 trying | advmod |
| 32 | trying | try | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 24 said | ccomp |
| 33 | to | to | PART | _ | 34 make | mark |
| 34 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 32 trying | xcomp |
| 35 | fools | fool | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 make | obj |
| 36 | of | of | ADP | _ | 37 us | case |
| 37 | us | we | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 35 fools | nmod |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Meantime | punct |
| 39 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 1 Meantime | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | meantime | imperative | you not said here | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | frighten | past · passive | the thieves | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer | |||||
| 3 | run off | past | a little way | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | pluck up | past | money | money's hearts | last | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent heart=Theme at last=Asset | |||
| 5 | say speech: assert | past | money not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 6 | try | present · progressive | the little urchin | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 7 | make not said to happen | to-infinitive | the little urchin not said here | fools of us | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset fool=Product |
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: «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 2591 (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/pg2591/25/58/