Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, sentence 24

The clerks were almost all old boys; but they did not dress as we are accustomed to see old men represented, wearing wigs, nightcaps, and knee-breeches, and with coat and waistcoat buttoned up to the chin.

Who acts: clerks · What happens: be, not dress, accustom, see, represent, wear · To what, where: old boys, knee breeches, we, old men, wigs

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (clerks), 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 clerks	det
2	clerks	clerk	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 boys	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 boys	cop
4	almost	almost	ADV	_	7 boys	advmod
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 boys	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 boys	amod
7	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
8	;	;	PUNCT	_	13 dress	punct
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	13 dress	cc
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 dress	nsubj
11	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 dress	aux
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	13 dress	advmod
13	dress	dress	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 boys	parataxis
14	as	as	SCONJ	_	17 accustomed	mark
15	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	17 accustomed	nsubj
16	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 accustomed	aux:pass
17	accustomed	accustom	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 dress	advcl
18	to	to	PART	_	19 see	mark
19	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	17 accustomed	xcomp
20	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 men	amod
21	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 see	obj
22	represented	represent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	21 men	acl
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 wearing	punct
24	wearing	wear	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	22 represented	advcl
25	wigs	wig	NOUN	Number=Plur	24 wearing	obj
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 nightcaps	punct
27	nightcaps	nightcap	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 wigs	conj
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	32 breeches	punct
29	and	and	CCONJ	_	32 breeches	cc
30	knee	knee	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 breeches	compound
31	-	-	PUNCT	_	30 knee	punct
32	breeches	breech	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 dress	obl
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 buttoned	punct
34	and	and	CCONJ	_	39 buttoned	cc
35	with	with	ADP	_	36 coat	case
36	coat	coat	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 buttoned	obl
37	and	and	CCONJ	_	38 waistcoat	cc
38	waistcoat	waistcoat	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 coat	conj
39	buttoned	button	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	13 dress	conj
40	up	up	ADP	_	39 buttoned	compound:prt
41	to	to	ADP	_	43 chin	case
42	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 chin	det
43	chin	chin	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 buttoned	obl
44	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 boys	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the clerks	all old boys	almost property	tree rules
2	not dress	past · do-support	clerks = clerk	knee breeches		vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	accustom	present · passive		we		tree rules
4	see	to-infinitive		old men		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus
5	represent	participle		old men not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
6	wear	gerund		wigs and nightcaps		vn wipe_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent wig=Theme
7	button up	participle	clerks = clerk not said here		with coat and waistcoat; to the chin	vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP PP.co-patient PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with coat=Instrument to chin=Co-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.

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