Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, sentence 124
These hideous creatures took off their rags, as if they intended to bathe, and then clawing open the fresh graves with their long, skinny fingers, pulled out the dead bodies and ate the flesh!
Who acts: hideous creatures, creatures, long skinny fingers · What happens: take off, intend, bathe, claw, open, pull out · To what, where: rags, fresh graves, dead bodies, flesh
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hideous creatures, creatures, long skinny fingers), 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 | These | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 3 creatures | det |
| 2 | hideous | hideous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 creatures | amod |
| 3 | creatures | creature | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 took | nsubj |
| 4 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | off | off | ADP | _ | 4 took | compound:prt |
| 6 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 rags | nmod:poss |
| 7 | rags | rag | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 took | obj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 intended | punct |
| 9 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 12 intended | mark |
| 10 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 12 intended | mark |
| 11 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 intended | nsubj |
| 12 | intended | intend | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 took | conj |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 bathe | mark |
| 14 | bathe | bathe | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 intended | xcomp |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 clawing | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 clawing | cc |
| 17 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 18 clawing | advmod |
| 18 | clawing | claw | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 took | advcl |
| 19 | open | open | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 clawing | xcomp |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 graves | det |
| 21 | fresh | fresh | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 graves | amod |
| 22 | graves | grave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 open | obj |
| 23 | with | with | ADP | _ | 28 fingers | case |
| 24 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 fingers | nmod:poss |
| 25 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 fingers | amod |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 long | punct |
| 27 | skinny | skinny | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 fingers | amod |
| 28 | fingers | finger | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 open | obl |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 pulled | punct |
| 30 | pulled | pull | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 28 fingers | acl |
| 31 | out | out | ADP | _ | 30 pulled | compound:prt |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 bodies | det |
| 33 | dead | dead | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 34 bodies | amod |
| 34 | bodies | body | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 pulled | obj |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 ate | cc |
| 36 | ate | eat | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 took | conj |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 flesh | det |
| 38 | flesh | flesh | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 ate | obj |
| 39 | ! | ! | PUNCT | _ | 4 took | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | take off | past | this hideous creatures | creatures's rags | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rag=Theme | ||||
| 2 | intend a condition, not said to happen | past | creatures = creature | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | bathe not said to happen | to-infinitive | creatures = creature not said here | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | claw | gerund | this hideous creatures not said here | then | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | open | infinitive | this hideous creatures not said here | the fresh graves | with creatures's long skinny fingers | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent grave=Patient with finger=Instrument | |||
| 6 | pull out | participle | creatures's long skinny fingers not said here | the dead bodies | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | eat | past | this hideous creatures not said here | the flesh | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flesh=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/pg27200/209/124/