Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bottle Neck, sentence 86

Whenever any strangers arrived, the paper was taken out and turned over and over, so that the address, which was only written in pencil, became almost illegible, and at last no one could distinguish any letters on it at all.

Who acts: strangers, last one · What happens: arrive, take out, turn over, write, become, distinguish · To what, where: paper, address, pencil, letters

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bottle Neck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (strangers, last one), 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	Whenever	whenever	ADV	PronType=Rel	4 arrived	advmod
2	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	3 strangers	det
3	strangers	stranger	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 arrived	nsubj
4	arrived	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 taken	advcl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 arrived	punct
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 paper	det
7	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 taken	nsubj:pass
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 taken	aux:pass
9	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
10	out	out	ADP	_	9 taken	compound:prt
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 turned	cc
12	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 taken	conj
13	over	over	ADP	_	12 turned	compound:prt
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 over	cc
15	over	over	ADV	_	13 over	conj
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 address	punct
17	so	so	SCONJ	_	20 address	case
18	that	that	SCONJ	_	17 so	fixed
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 address	det
20	address	address	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 turned	obj
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 written	punct
22	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	25 written	obj
23	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	25 written	aux:pass
24	only	only	ADV	_	25 written	advmod
25	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	20 address	acl:relcl
26	in	in	ADP	_	27 pencil	case
27	pencil	pencil	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 written	obl
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 became	punct
29	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 turned	conj
30	almost	almost	ADV	_	31 illegible	advmod
31	illegible	illegible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	29 became	xcomp
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 distinguish	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	39 distinguish	cc
34	at	at	ADP	_	35 last	case
35	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 one	amod
36	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	37 one	det
37	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 distinguish	nsubj
38	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	39 distinguish	aux
39	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 taken	parataxis
40	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	41 letters	det
41	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	39 distinguish	obj
42	on	on	ADP	_	43 it	case
43	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 distinguish	obl
44	at	at	ADP	_	45 all	case
45	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	39 distinguish	obl
46	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 taken	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	arrive	past	any strangers			whenever property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	take out	past · passive		the paper			vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
3	turn over	past		the address			vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent address=Theme
4	write	past · passive		the address	pencil		vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: which=Theme in pencil=Destination
5	become	past				illegible property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
6	distinguish	could	no last one	any letters	paper	at all	vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Attribute letter=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: «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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