Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, sentence 12
But the oldest of the crows perhaps knew more than he, and screamed it out in her own language; but that was the crow's language, and the clerk did not understand that, clever as he was.
Who acts: oldest, that, clerk · What happens: know, scream out, be, not understand · To what, where: more, knowledge, own language, language, that
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (oldest, that, clerk), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 8 knew | cc |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 oldest | det |
| 3 | oldest | old | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 8 knew | nsubj |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 crows | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 crows | det |
| 6 | crows | crow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 oldest | obl |
| 7 | perhaps | perhaps | ADV | _ | 8 knew | advmod |
| 8 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 8 knew | obj |
| 10 | than | than | ADP | _ | 11 he | case |
| 11 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 more | obl |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 screamed | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 screamed | cc |
| 14 | screamed | scream | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 knew | conj |
| 15 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 screamed | obj |
| 16 | out | out | ADP | _ | 14 screamed | compound:prt |
| 17 | in | in | ADP | _ | 20 language | case |
| 18 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 language | nmod:poss |
| 19 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 language | amod |
| 20 | language | language | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 screamed | obl |
| 21 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 28 language | punct |
| 22 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 28 language | cc |
| 23 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 28 language | nsubj |
| 24 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 language | cop |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 crow | det |
| 26 | crow | crow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 language | nmod:poss |
| 27 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 26 crow | case |
| 28 | language | language | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 knew | parataxis |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 understand | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 understand | cc |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 clerk | det |
| 32 | clerk | clerk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 understand | nsubj |
| 33 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 understand | aux |
| 34 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 35 understand | advmod |
| 35 | understand | understand | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 28 language | parataxis |
| 36 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 35 understand | obj |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 clever | punct |
| 38 | clever | clever | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 language | conj |
| 39 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 41 was | mark |
| 40 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 was | nsubj |
| 41 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 38 clever | advcl |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 knew | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | know | past | the oldest | more | perhaps property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer more=Stimulus | |||
| 2 | scream out speech: express | past | the oldest not said here | knowledge | many's own language | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic | |||
| 3 | is a | past | that | the crow's language | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | not understand | past · do-support | the clerk | that | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus | ||||
| 5 | be | that not said here | tree rules | ||||||
| 6 | be | past | clerk | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/149/12/