Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, sentence 7
In this snug retreat sat a duck on her nest, watching for her young brood to hatch; she was beginning to get tired of her task, for the little ones were a long time coming out of their shells, and she seldom had any visitors.
Who acts: duck, little ones, long time · What happens: sit, watch, hatch, begin, get, be · To what, where: duck, snug retreat, shells, visitors
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Ugly Duckling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (duck, little ones, long time), 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 | In | in | ADP | _ | 4 retreat | case |
| 2 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 4 retreat | det |
| 3 | snug | snug | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 retreat | amod |
| 4 | retreat | retreat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sat | obl |
| 5 | sat | sit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 duck | det |
| 7 | duck | duck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sat | obj |
| 8 | on | on | ADP | _ | 10 nest | case |
| 9 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 nest | nmod:poss |
| 10 | nest | nest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sat | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 watching | punct |
| 12 | watching | watch | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 sat | advcl |
| 13 | for | for | ADP | _ | 16 brood | case |
| 14 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 brood | nmod:poss |
| 15 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 brood | amod |
| 16 | brood | brood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 watching | obl |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 hatch | mark |
| 18 | hatch | hatch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 watching | advcl |
| 19 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 22 beginning | punct |
| 20 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 beginning | nsubj |
| 21 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 beginning | aux |
| 22 | beginning | begin | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 sat | advcl |
| 23 | to | to | PART | _ | 24 get | mark |
| 24 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 22 beginning | xcomp |
| 25 | tired | tired | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 get | xcomp |
| 26 | of | of | ADP | _ | 28 task | case |
| 27 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 task | nmod:poss |
| 28 | task | task | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 tired | obl |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 time | punct |
| 30 | for | for | ADP | _ | 37 time | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 ones | det |
| 32 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 ones | amod |
| 33 | ones | one | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 time | nsubj |
| 34 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 time | cop |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 time | det |
| 36 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 time | amod |
| 37 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 sat | parataxis |
| 38 | coming | come | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 37 time | acl |
| 39 | out | out | ADP | _ | 42 shells | case |
| 40 | of | of | ADP | _ | 42 shells | case |
| 41 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 shells | nmod:poss |
| 42 | shells | shell | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 coming | obl |
| 43 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 47 had | punct |
| 44 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 47 had | cc |
| 45 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 47 had | nsubj |
| 46 | seldom | seldom | ADV | _ | 47 had | advmod |
| 47 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 sat | conj |
| 48 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 49 visitors | det |
| 49 | visitors | visitor | NOUN | Number=Plur | 47 had | obj |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 sat | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sit | past | a duck | this snug retreat | on duck's nest | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent duck=Theme in retreat=Location | |||
| 2 | watch | gerund | for duck's young brood | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for brood=Theme | |||||
| 3 | hatch | to-infinitive | vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.patient V PP.product»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 4 | begin | past · progressive | duck | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 5 | get | to-infinitive | duck not said here | tired property | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 6 | is | past | the little ones | for a long time | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | come out | gerund | a long time not said here | leaves's shells | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient shell=Result | ||||
| 8 | have | past | duck | any visitors | seldom property | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent visitor=Patient | |||
| 9 | task | duck | nom task «act transitive»: poss=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/pg27200/201/7/