Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3, sentence 18
Coloured pictures gleamed from their golden background, and on the altar stood the figure of the Virgin with the child Jesus, surrounded by lights and flowers; priests in festive robes were chanting, and choir boys in dazzling attire swung silver censers.
Who acts: Coloured pictures, priests, choir boys · What happens: gleam, stand, surround, chant, swing, figure · To what, where: Coloured pictures, golden background, figure, altar, Jesus, silver censers
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Coloured pictures, priests, choir boys), 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 | Coloured | coloured | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 pictures | amod |
| 2 | pictures | picture | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 stood | nsubj |
| 3 | gleamed | gleam | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 pictures | acl |
| 4 | from | from | ADP | _ | 7 background | case |
| 5 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 background | nmod:poss |
| 6 | golden | golden | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 background | amod |
| 7 | background | background | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 gleamed | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 stood | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 stood | cc |
| 10 | on | on | ADP | _ | 12 altar | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 altar | det |
| 12 | altar | altar | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 stood | obl |
| 13 | stood | stand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 figure | det |
| 15 | figure | figure | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 stood | obj |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 Virgin | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 Virgin | det |
| 18 | Virgin | virgin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 figure | nmod |
| 19 | with | with | ADP | _ | 21 child | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 child | det |
| 21 | child | child | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 Virgin | nmod |
| 22 | Jesus | Jesus | PROPN | Number=Sing | 21 child | appos |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 surrounded | punct |
| 24 | surrounded | surround | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 22 Jesus | acl |
| 25 | by | by | ADP | _ | 26 lights | case |
| 26 | lights | light | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 surrounded | obl:agent |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 flowers | cc |
| 28 | flowers | flower | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 lights | conj |
| 29 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 35 chanting | punct |
| 30 | priests | priest | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 chanting | nsubj |
| 31 | in | in | ADP | _ | 33 robes | case |
| 32 | festive | festive | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 robes | amod |
| 33 | robes | robe | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 priests | nmod |
| 34 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 chanting | aux |
| 35 | chanting | chant | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 13 stood | advcl |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 swung | punct |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 swung | cc |
| 38 | choir | choir | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 boys | compound |
| 39 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 swung | nsubj |
| 40 | in | in | ADP | _ | 42 attire | case |
| 41 | dazzling | dazzling | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 attire | compound |
| 42 | attire | attire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 boys | nmod |
| 43 | swung | swing | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 stood | conj |
| 44 | silver | silver | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 censers | amod |
| 45 | censers | censer | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 swung | obj |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 13 stood | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | gleam | participle | Coloured pictures not said here | pictures's golden background | vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | stand | past | Coloured pictures | the figure of the Virgin with the child | the altar | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent figure=Theme on altar=Destination | |||
| 3 | surround | participle | Jesus not said here | vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | chant | past · progressive | priests in festive robes | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | swing | past | choir boys in dazzling attire | silver censers | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent censer=Theme | ||||
| 6 | figure | the Virgin with the child | nom figure «communication 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/pg27200/160/18/