Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bird of Popular Song, sentence 37
The wind is sharp as a two-edged sword, the snow-flakes chase each other; it seems as though it had been snowing for days and weeks, and the snow lies like a great mountain over the whole town, like a heavy dream of the winter night.
Who acts: wind, snow flakes, it, snow · What happens: be, edge, chase, seem, snow, lie · To what, where: each, whole town, winter night
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bird of Popular Song. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wind, snow flakes, it, snow), 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 | 2 wind | det |
| 2 | wind | wind | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 sharp | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 sharp | cop |
| 4 | sharp | sharp | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | as | as | ADP | _ | 10 sword | case |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 sword | det |
| 7 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 9 edged | nummod |
| 8 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 7 two | punct |
| 9 | edged | edge | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 sword | amod |
| 10 | sword | sword | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 sharp | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 chase | punct |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 flakes | det |
| 13 | snow | snow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 flakes | compound |
| 14 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 13 snow | punct |
| 15 | flakes | flake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 chase | nsubj |
| 16 | chase | chase | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 sharp | conj |
| 17 | each | each | DET | ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp | 16 chase | obj |
| 18 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 each | fixed |
| 19 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 21 seems | punct |
| 20 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 seems | nsubj |
| 21 | seems | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 sharp | parataxis |
| 22 | as | as | ADV | _ | 21 seems | advmod |
| 23 | though | though | SCONJ | _ | 27 snowing | mark |
| 24 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 snowing | nsubj |
| 25 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 snowing | aux |
| 26 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 27 snowing | aux |
| 27 | snowing | snow | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 21 seems | advcl |
| 28 | for | for | ADP | _ | 29 days | case |
| 29 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 27 snowing | obl |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 weeks | cc |
| 31 | weeks | week | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 days | conj |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 lies | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 lies | cc |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 snow | det |
| 35 | snow | snow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 lies | nsubj |
| 36 | lies | lie | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 21 seems | conj |
| 37 | like | like | ADP | _ | 40 mountain | case |
| 38 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 40 mountain | det |
| 39 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 mountain | amod |
| 40 | mountain | mountain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 lies | obl |
| 41 | over | over | ADP | _ | 44 town | case |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 town | det |
| 43 | whole | whole | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 44 town | amod |
| 44 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 lies | obl |
| 45 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 49 dream | punct |
| 46 | like | like | ADP | _ | 49 dream | case |
| 47 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 49 dream | det |
| 48 | heavy | heavy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 49 dream | amod |
| 49 | dream | dream | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 town | acl:relcl |
| 50 | of | of | ADP | _ | 53 night | case |
| 51 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 53 night | det |
| 52 | winter | winter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 53 night | compound |
| 53 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 49 dream | nmod |
| 54 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 sharp | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | the wind | as a edged sword; sharp property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | edge | participle | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 3 | chase | present | the snow flakes | each | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent each=Theme | ||||
| 4 | seem | present | it | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | snow | past · perfect · progressive | it | day | vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme» | ||||
| 6 | lie | present | the snow | the whole town | like a great mountain | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over town=Location | |||
| 7 | dream | the winter night | nom dream «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
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: «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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/pg27200/11/37/