Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Old Man and His Grandson, sentence 1

There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears dull of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he could hardly hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth or let it run out of his mouth.

Who acts: old man, eyes, knees, man, broth · What happens: be, become, tremble, sit, hold, spilt · To what, where: dim ears, table, spoon, broth, mouth

This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Old Man and His Grandson. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, eyes, knees, 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	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	2 was	expl
2	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	2 was	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 man	det
5	very	very	ADV	_	6 old	advmod
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 man	amod
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 was	nsubj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 become	punct
9	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	10 eyes	nmod:poss
10	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 become	nsubj
11	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 become	aux
12	become	become	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	7 man	acl:relcl
13	dim	dim	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 ears	amod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 ears	punct
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 ears	nmod:poss
16	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 become	xcomp
17	dull	dull	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 ears	amod
18	of	of	ADP	_	19 hearing	case
19	hearing	hearing	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 dull	obl
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 trembled	punct
21	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	22 knees	nmod:poss
22	knees	knee	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 trembled	nsubj
23	trembled	tremble	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 ears	parataxis
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 spilt	punct
25	and	and	CCONJ	_	39 spilt	cc
26	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	28 sat	advmod
27	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	28 sat	nsubj
28	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	39 spilt	advcl
29	at	at	ADP	_	30 table	case
30	table	table	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 sat	obl
31	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	34 hold	nsubj
32	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	34 hold	aux
33	hardly	hardly	ADV	_	34 hold	advmod
34	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	28 sat	parataxis
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 spoon	det
36	spoon	spoon	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 hold	obj
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 spilt	punct
38	and	and	CCONJ	_	39 spilt	cc
39	spilt	spilt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 trembled	conj
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 broth	det
41	broth	broth	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 spilt	obj
42	upon	upon	ADP	_	46 cloth	case
43	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	46 cloth	det
44	table	table	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 cloth	compound
45	-	-	PUNCT	_	44 table	punct
46	cloth	cloth	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 spilt	obl
47	or	or	CCONJ	_	48 let	cc
48	let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	39 spilt	conj
49	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	48 let	obj
50	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	48 let	xcomp
51	out	out	ADP	_	54 mouth	case
52	of	of	ADP	_	54 mouth	case
53	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	54 mouth	nmod:poss
54	mouth	mouth	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 run	obl
55	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 was	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	be	past	a old man		there	once property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	become	past · perfect	eyes	man's dim ears			vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
3	tremble	past	man's knees				vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	sit	past	man		table		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at table=Location
5	hold	could	man	the spoon		hardly property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spoon=Theme
6	spilt	past	man's knees not said here	the broth		upon the table cloth	tree rules
7	let	infinitive	man's knees not said here	broth			tree rules
8	run	infinitive	broth not said here		man's mouth		vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out mouth=Trajectory

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/pg2591/27/1/