Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Snowdrop, sentence 176

I lay looking at the cloud till I observed a little black spot in the middle of it, which gradually grew larger and larger, and then I knew what it meant--I am old and experienced; and although this token is not often seen, I knew it, and a shuddering seized me.

Who acts: I, little black spot, spot, shuddering · What happens: lay, look, observe, grow, know, mean · To what, where: little black spot, middle, token, spot, me · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Snowdrop. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, little black spot, spot, shuddering), 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	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	2 lay	nsubj
2	lay	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	looking	look	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 lay	xcomp
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 cloud	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cloud	det
6	cloud	cloud	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 looking	obl
7	till	till	SCONJ	_	9 observed	mark
8	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	9 observed	nsubj
9	observed	observe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 looking	advcl
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 spot	det
11	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 spot	amod
12	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 spot	amod
13	spot	spot	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 observed	obj
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 middle	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 middle	det
16	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 spot	nmod
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 it	case
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 middle	nmod
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 grew	punct
20	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	22 grew	nsubj
21	gradually	gradually	ADV	_	22 grew	advmod
22	grew	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 spot	conj
23	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	22 grew	xcomp
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 larger	cc
25	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	23 larger	conj
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 knew	punct
27	and	and	CCONJ	_	30 knew	cc
28	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	30 knew	advmod
29	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	30 knew	nsubj
30	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 lay	advcl
31	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	33 meant	obj
32	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 meant	nsubj
33	meant	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 knew	ccomp
34	--	--	PUNCT	_	37 old	punct
35	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	37 old	nsubj
36	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	37 old	cop
37	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 lay	parataxis
38	and	and	CCONJ	_	39 experienced	cc
39	experienced	experienced	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 old	conj
40	;	;	PUNCT	_	51 knew	punct
41	and	and	CCONJ	_	51 knew	cc
42	although	although	SCONJ	_	48 seen	mark
43	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	44 token	det
44	token	token	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 seen	nsubj:pass
45	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	48 seen	aux:pass
46	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	48 seen	advmod
47	often	often	ADV	_	48 seen	advmod
48	seen	see	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	51 knew	advcl
49	,	,	PUNCT	_	48 seen	punct
50	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	51 knew	nsubj
51	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 lay	parataxis
52	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	51 knew	obj
53	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 seized	punct
54	and	and	CCONJ	_	57 seized	cc
55	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	56 shuddering	det
56	shuddering	shuddering	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 seized	nsubj
57	seized	seize	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	51 knew	conj
58	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	57 seized	obj
59	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 lay	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lay	present	I					tree rules
2	look	gerund	I not said here				at the cloud	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at cloud=Theme
3	observe	past	I	a little black spot	the middle of middle			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent spot=Topic
4	grow	past	a little black spot				gradually, large property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	know	past	I			then		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
6	mean	past	spot					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic
7	is	present	I				old property	tree rules
8	be		I not said here					tree rules
9	not see	present · passive		this token			often property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus
10	know	past	I	spot				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
11	seize	past	a shuddering	me				vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=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/pg27200/177/176/