Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep, sentence 80

The chimney-sweep and the little shepherdess looked piteously at the old Chinaman, for they were afraid he might nod; but he was not able: besides, it was so tiresome to be always telling strangers he had a rivet in the back of his neck.

Who acts: chimney sweep, lovers, grandfather, reason · What happens: look, be, nod, not be, have · To what, where: besides, strangers, rivet, back · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shepherdess and the Sheep. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chimney sweep, lovers, grandfather, reason), 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	4 sweep	det
2	chimney	chimney	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sweep	compound
3	-	-	PUNCT	_	2 chimney	punct
4	sweep	sweep	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 looked	nsubj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 shepherdess	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 shepherdess	det
7	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 shepherdess	amod
8	shepherdess	shepherdess	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sweep	conj
9	looked	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	piteously	piteously	ADV	_	9 looked	advmod
11	at	at	ADP	_	14 Chinaman	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Chinaman	det
13	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 Chinaman	amod
14	Chinaman	Chinaman	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 looked	obl
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 afraid	punct
16	for	for	SCONJ	_	19 afraid	mark
17	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 afraid	nsubj
18	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 afraid	cop
19	afraid	afraid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 looked	advcl
20	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 nod	nsubj
21	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	22 nod	aux
22	nod	nod	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 afraid	ccomp
23	;	;	PUNCT	_	28 able	punct
24	but	but	CCONJ	_	28 able	cc
25	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	28 able	nsubj
26	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	28 able	cop
27	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	28 able	advmod
28	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 looked	parataxis
29	:	:	PUNCT	_	30 besides	punct
30	besides	beside	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 able	obl
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 tiresome	punct
32	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 tiresome	nsubj
33	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	35 tiresome	cop
34	so	so	ADV	_	35 tiresome	advmod
35	tiresome	tiresome	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 besides	acl
36	to	to	PART	_	39 telling	mark
37	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	39 telling	cop
38	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	39 telling	advmod
39	telling	tell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	35 tiresome	advcl
40	strangers	stranger	NOUN	Number=Plur	39 telling	iobj
41	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	42 had	nsubj
42	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	39 telling	ccomp
43	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	44 rivet	det
44	rivet	rivet	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 had	obj
45	in	in	ADP	_	47 back	case
46	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	47 back	det
47	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 rivet	nmod
48	of	of	ADP	_	50 neck	case
49	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	50 neck	nmod:poss
50	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 back	nmod
51	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 looked	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	look	past	the chimney sweep and the little shepherdess				at the old Chinaman; piteously property	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at chinaman=Theme
2	is	past	lovers = lover				afraid property	tree rules
3	nod	might	grandfather					vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	not is	past	grandfather				besides obl; able property	tree rules
5	is	past	reason	besides not said here			tiresome property	tree rules
6	be speech: assert	to-infinitive	reason not said here		strangers		always, tell property	tree rules
7	have	past	grandfather	a rivet		the back of grandfather's neck		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rivet=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/pg27200/166/80/