Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Shirt-collar, sentence 1

There was once a fine gentleman who possessed among other things a boot-jack and a hair-brush; but he had also the finest shirt-collar in the world, and of this collar we are about to hear a story.

Who acts: fine gentleman, gentleman, we · What happens: be, possess, have, hear · To what, where: finest shirt collar, world, story

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Shirt-collar. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fine gentleman, gentleman, we), 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	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	2 was	expl
2	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	2 was	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 gentleman	det
5	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 gentleman	amod
6	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 was	nsubj
7	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 possessed	nsubj
8	possessed	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 gentleman	acl:relcl
9	among	among	ADP	_	11 things	case
10	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 things	amod
11	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 possessed	obl
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 jack	det
13	boot	boot	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 jack	compound
14	-	-	PUNCT	_	13 boot	punct
15	jack	jack	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 things	appos
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	20 brush	cc
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 brush	det
18	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 brush	compound
19	-	-	PUNCT	_	18 hair	punct
20	brush	brush	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 jack	conj
21	;	;	PUNCT	_	24 had	punct
22	but	but	CCONJ	_	24 had	cc
23	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 had	nsubj
24	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 was	parataxis
25	also	also	ADV	_	30 collar	advmod
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 collar	det
27	finest	fine	ADJ	Degree=Sup	30 collar	amod
28	shirt	shirt	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 collar	compound
29	-	-	PUNCT	_	28 shirt	punct
30	collar	collar	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 had	obj
31	in	in	ADP	_	33 world	case
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 world	det
33	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 collar	nmod
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 about	punct
35	and	and	CCONJ	_	41 about	cc
36	of	of	ADP	_	38 collar	case
37	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	38 collar	det
38	collar	collar	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 about	obl
39	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	41 about	nsubj
40	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	41 about	cop
41	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 had	conj
42	to	to	PART	_	43 hear	mark
43	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	41 about	xcomp
44	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	45 story	det
45	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 hear	obj
46	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 was	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	be	past	a fine gentleman		there	once property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	possess	past	a fine gentleman			among other things	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
3	have	past	gentleman	the finest shirt collar	the world		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent collar=Patient
4	is	present	we			of this collar; about property	tree rules
5	hear	to-infinitive	we not said here	a story			vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus

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/pg27200/168/1/