Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Thorny Road of Honor, sentence 72

Then suddenly a little nail breaks, which had stopped the machine for a few moments; and now the wheels turn again, the floats break the force of the waters, and the ship continues its course; and the beam of the steam engine shortens the distance between far lands from hours into minutes.

Who acts: little nail, wheels, floats, ship, beam · What happens: break, stop, turn, continue, shorten, beam · To what, where: machine, force, course, distance, steam engine

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Thorny Road of Honor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little nail, wheels, floats, ship), 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	Then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 breaks	advmod
2	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	_	6 breaks	advmod
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 nail	det
4	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 nail	amod
5	nail	nail	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 breaks	nsubj
6	breaks	break	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 stopped	punct
8	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 stopped	nsubj
9	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 stopped	aux
10	stopped	stop	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 breaks	conj
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 machine	det
12	machine	machine	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stopped	obj
13	for	for	ADP	_	16 moments	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 moments	det
15	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 moments	amod
16	moments	moment	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 stopped	obl
17	;	;	PUNCT	_	22 turn	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 turn	cc
19	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	22 turn	advmod
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 wheels	det
21	wheels	wheel	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 turn	nsubj
22	turn	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 breaks	parataxis
23	again	again	ADV	_	22 turn	advmod
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 break	punct
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 floats	det
26	floats	float	NOUN	Number=Plur	27 break	nsubj
27	break	break	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	22 turn	conj
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 force	det
29	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 break	obj
30	of	of	ADP	_	32 waters	case
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 waters	det
32	waters	water	NOUN	Number=Plur	29 force	nmod
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 continues	punct
34	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 continues	cc
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 ship	det
36	ship	ship	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 continues	nsubj
37	continues	continue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 breaks	conj
38	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	39 course	nmod:poss
39	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 continues	obj
40	;	;	PUNCT	_	48 shortens	punct
41	and	and	CCONJ	_	48 shortens	cc
42	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 beam	det
43	beam	beam	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 shortens	nsubj
44	of	of	ADP	_	47 engine	case
45	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	47 engine	det
46	steam	steam	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 engine	compound
47	engine	engine	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 beam	nmod
48	shortens	shorten	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 breaks	conj
49	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	50 distance	det
50	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 shortens	obj
51	between	between	ADP	_	53 lands	case
52	far	far	ADJ	Degree=Pos	53 lands	amod
53	lands	land	NOUN	Number=Plur	50 distance	nmod
54	from	from	ADP	_	55 hours	case
55	hours	hour	NOUN	Number=Plur	53 lands	nmod
56	into	into	ADP	_	57 minutes	case
57	minutes	minute	NOUN	Number=Plur	48 shortens	obl
58	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 breaks	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	break	present	a little nail		then	suddenly property	vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	stop	past · perfect		the machine	moment		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality machine=Eventuality
3	turn	present	the wheels		now; again		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
4	break	present	the floats	the force of the waters			vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer force=Patient
5	continue	present	the ship	ship's course			vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent course=Theme
6	shorten	present	the beam of the steam engine	the distance	minute	between far lands from hours	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent distance=Patient
7	beam			the steam engine			nom beam «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/pg27200/190/72/