Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Two Brothers, sentence 22
They were not elves dancing out there, as their old nurse had told him; he knew better--they were vapours which were warmer than the air, and that is why they rose.
Who acts: meadows, truth, vapours, that · What happens: not dance out, tell, know, be, rise · To what, where: old nurse, truth, vapours · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Two Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (meadows, truth, vapours, that), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 dancing | nsubj |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 dancing | aux |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 dancing | advmod |
| 4 | elves | elf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 dancing | nsubj |
| 5 | dancing | dance | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 6 | out | out | ADV | _ | 7 there | advmod |
| 7 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 5 dancing | advmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 told | punct |
| 9 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 14 told | mark |
| 10 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 nurse | nmod:poss |
| 11 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 nurse | amod |
| 12 | nurse | nurse | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 told | nsubj:pass |
| 13 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 told | aux |
| 14 | told | tell | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 dancing | advcl |
| 15 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 told | iobj |
| 16 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 18 knew | punct |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 knew | nsubj |
| 18 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 dancing | parataxis |
| 19 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 18 knew | xcomp |
| 20 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 23 vapours | punct |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 vapours | nsubj |
| 22 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 vapours | cop |
| 23 | vapours | vapour | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 knew | obl |
| 24 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 26 warmer | nsubj |
| 25 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 warmer | cop |
| 26 | warmer | warm | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 23 vapours | acl:relcl |
| 27 | than | than | ADP | _ | 29 air | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 air | det |
| 29 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 warmer | obl |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 why | punct |
| 31 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 why | cc |
| 32 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 34 why | nsubj |
| 33 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 34 why | cop |
| 34 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 18 knew | conj |
| 35 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 rose | nsubj |
| 36 | rose | rise | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 why | advcl |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 dancing | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not dance out | past · progressive | meadows = meadow | there | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | past · perfect · passive | meadows's old nurse | truth | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient he=Topic | ||||
| 3 | know | past | truth | good property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 4 | is a | past | meadows = meadow | vapours | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | is | past | vapours | than the air; warm property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | is | present | that | why property | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | rise | past | meadows = meadow | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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/pg27200/199/22/