Grimms' Fairy Tales, The White Snake, sentence 38
There was a great noise and crowd in the streets, and a man rode up on horseback, crying aloud: ‘The king’s daughter wants a husband; but whoever seeks her hand must perform a hard task, and if he does not succeed he will forfeit his life.’
Who acts: man, daughter, whoever, hand · What happens: be, cry, want, seek, perform, not succeed · To what, where: horseback, husband, hard task, life
This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The White Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, daughter, whoever, hand), 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 | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 rode | cop |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 noise | det |
| 4 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 noise | amod |
| 5 | noise | noise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 was | nsubj |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 crowd | cc |
| 7 | crowd | crowd | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 noise | conj |
| 8 | in | in | ADP | _ | 10 streets | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 streets | det |
| 10 | streets | street | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 crowd | nmod |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 rode | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 rode | cc |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 man | det |
| 14 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 rode | nsubj |
| 15 | rode | ride | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 16 | up | up | ADP | _ | 15 rode | compound:prt |
| 17 | on | on | ADP | _ | 18 horseback | case |
| 18 | horseback | horseback | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 rode | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 crying | punct |
| 20 | crying | cry | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 15 rode | conj |
| 21 | aloud | aloud | ADV | _ | 20 crying | advmod |
| 22 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 28 wants | punct |
| 23 | ‘ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 28 wants | punct |
| 24 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 king | det |
| 25 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 daughter | nmod:poss |
| 26 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 25 king | case |
| 27 | daughter | daughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 wants | nsubj |
| 28 | wants | want | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 rode | parataxis |
| 29 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 30 husband | det |
| 30 | husband | husband | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 wants | obj |
| 31 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 34 seeks | punct |
| 32 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 34 seeks | cc |
| 33 | whoever | whoever | PRON | PronType=Rel | 34 seeks | nsubj |
| 34 | seeks | seek | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 28 wants | conj |
| 35 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 36 hand | nmod:poss |
| 36 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 perform | nsubj |
| 37 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 38 perform | aux |
| 38 | perform | perform | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 34 seeks | ccomp |
| 39 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 41 task | det |
| 40 | hard | hard | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 task | amod |
| 41 | task | task | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 perform | obj |
| 42 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 51 forfeit | punct |
| 43 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 51 forfeit | cc |
| 44 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 48 succeed | mark |
| 45 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 48 succeed | nsubj |
| 46 | does | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 48 succeed | aux |
| 47 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 48 succeed | advmod |
| 48 | succeed | succeed | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 51 forfeit | csubj |
| 49 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 51 forfeit | nsubj |
| 50 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 51 forfeit | aux |
| 51 | forfeit | forfeit | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 rode | parataxis |
| 52 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 53 life | nmod:poss |
| 53 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 51 forfeit | obj |
| 54 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 51 forfeit | punct |
| 55 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 51 forfeit | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | a man | horseback | ride property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | cry speech: express | gerund | a man not said here | aloud property | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | want | present | the king's daughter | a husband | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot husband=Theme | ||||
| 4 | seek | present | whoever | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | perform | must | daughter's hand | a hard task | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Theme | ||||
| 6 | not succeed a condition, not said to happen | present · do-support | hand | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 7 | forfeit | future | hand | hand's life | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent life=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: «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/pg2591/34/38/