Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2, sentence 42
But they went too far, and of eight daughters only three came back to the mother, and these wept and said, 'We only went a little way out, and the ugly eel-spearer came immediately and stabbed five of our sisters to death.' '
Who acts: eels, these, We, ugly eel spearer · What happens: go, come back, weep, say, come, stab · To what, where: mother, little way, five · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eels, these, We, ugly eel spearer), 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 | _ | 3 went | cc |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 went | nsubj |
| 3 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | too | too | ADV | _ | 5 far | advmod |
| 5 | far | far | ADV | Degree=Pos | 3 went | advmod |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 came | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 came | cc |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 daughters | case |
| 9 | eight | eight | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 10 daughters | nummod |
| 10 | daughters | daughter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 came | obl |
| 11 | only | only | ADV | _ | 12 three | advmod |
| 12 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 10 daughters | nmod |
| 13 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | conj |
| 14 | back | back | ADV | _ | 13 came | advmod |
| 15 | to | to | ADP | _ | 17 mother | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 mother | det |
| 17 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 came | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 wept | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 wept | cc |
| 20 | these | this | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 21 wept | nsubj |
| 21 | wept | weep | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | conj |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 said | cc |
| 23 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 wept | conj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 went | punct |
| 25 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 28 went | punct |
| 26 | We | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 28 went | nsubj |
| 27 | only | only | ADV | _ | 28 went | advmod |
| 28 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 said | ccomp |
| 29 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 31 way | det |
| 30 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 way | amod |
| 31 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 went | obj |
| 32 | out | out | ADV | _ | 28 went | advmod |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 came | punct |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 came | cc |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 spearer | det |
| 36 | ugly | ugly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 spearer | amod |
| 37 | eel | eel | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 spearer | compound |
| 38 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 37 eel | punct |
| 39 | spearer | spearer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 came | nsubj |
| 40 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | parataxis |
| 41 | immediately | immediately | ADV | _ | 40 came | advmod |
| 42 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 stabbed | cc |
| 43 | stabbed | stab | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 40 came | conj |
| 44 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 43 stabbed | obj |
| 45 | of | of | ADP | _ | 47 sisters | case |
| 46 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 47 sisters | nmod:poss |
| 47 | sisters | sister | NOUN | Number=Plur | 44 five | nmod |
| 48 | to | to | ADP | _ | 49 death | case |
| 49 | death | death | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 stabbed | obl |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
| 51 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
| 52 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | eels = eel | far property | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | come back | past | eels = eel not said here | the mother | of eight daughters three | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme of daughter=Initial_Location to mother=Destination | |||
| 3 | weep | past | these | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | say speech: assert | past | these not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | go | past | We | a little way | out property | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme | |||
| 6 | come | past | the ugly eel spearer | immediately property | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 7 | stab | past | the ugly eel spearer not said here | five of our sisters | to death result | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent five=Patient to death=Result |
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/pg27200/159/42/