Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of a Mother, sentence 9
The old man, who was indeed Death himself, nodded his head in a peculiar manner, which might have signified either Yes, or No; and the mother cast down her eyes, while the tears rolled down her cheeks.
Who acts: old man, tears · What happens: be, nod, signify, roll down · To what, where: Death, head, peculiar manner, cheeks
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Story of a Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, tears), 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 | 3 man | det |
| 2 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 man | amod |
| 3 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 nodded | nsubj |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 Death | punct |
| 5 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 8 Death | nsubj |
| 6 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 Death | cop |
| 7 | indeed | indeed | ADV | _ | 8 Death | advmod |
| 8 | Death | Death | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 man | nmod |
| 9 | himself | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 8 Death | nmod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 man | punct |
| 11 | nodded | nod | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 head | nmod:poss |
| 13 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 nodded | obj |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 17 manner | case |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 17 manner | det |
| 16 | peculiar | peculiar | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 manner | compound |
| 17 | manner | manner | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 nodded | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 signified | punct |
| 19 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 22 signified | nsubj:pass |
| 20 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 22 signified | aux |
| 21 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 22 signified | aux |
| 22 | signified | signify | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 manner | acl:relcl |
| 23 | either | either | CCONJ | _ | 24 Yes | cc:preconj |
| 24 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 22 signified | discourse |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 No | punct |
| 26 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 27 No | cc |
| 27 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 11 nodded | discourse |
| 28 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 32 cast | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 cast | cc |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 cast | det |
| 31 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 cast | compound |
| 32 | cast | cast | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 nodded | obl |
| 33 | down | down | ADP | _ | 35 eyes | case |
| 34 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 35 eyes | nmod:poss |
| 35 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 cast | nmod |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 rolled | punct |
| 37 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 40 rolled | mark |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 tears | det |
| 39 | tears | tear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 rolled | nsubj |
| 40 | rolled | roll | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 nodded | parataxis |
| 41 | down | down | ADP | _ | 40 rolled | compound:prt |
| 42 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 43 cheeks | nmod:poss |
| 43 | cheeks | cheek | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 rolled | obj |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 nodded | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | the old man | Death | man nmod; indeed property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | nod | past | the old man | man's head | in a peculiar manner; the mother cast down Death's eyes obl | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent head=Patient in manner=Theme | |||
| 3 | signify | might · perfect · passive | a peculiar manner | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 4 | roll down | past | the tears | Death's cheeks | vn run-51.3.2-2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location cheek=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/pg27200/185/9/