Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 3, sentence 21
They were told it could not be, it was yet almost night, and as the king slept they dared not disturb him.
Who acts: thrush, king, brothers · What happens: tell, not be, be, sleep, not dare, not disturb · To what, where: brothers, night, king · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thrush, king, brothers), 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 | 3 told | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 told | aux:pass |
| 3 | told | tell | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 be | nsubj |
| 5 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 be | aux |
| 6 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 7 be | advmod |
| 7 | be | be | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 told | ccomp |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 night | punct |
| 9 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 night | nsubj |
| 10 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 night | cop |
| 11 | yet | yet | ADV | _ | 13 night | advmod |
| 12 | almost | almost | ADV | _ | 13 night | advmod |
| 13 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 told | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 slept | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 slept | cc |
| 16 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 19 slept | mark |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 king | det |
| 18 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 slept | nsubj |
| 19 | slept | sleep | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 told | parataxis |
| 20 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 dared | nsubj |
| 21 | dared | dare | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 slept | conj |
| 22 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 21 dared | advmod |
| 23 | disturb | disturb | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 dared | xcomp |
| 24 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 disturb | obj |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past · passive | brothers = brother | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | not can | could | thrush | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | is a | past | thrush | night | yet | almost property | tree rules | ||
| 4 | sleep | past | the king | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | not dare | past | brothers = brother | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 6 | not disturb | infinitive | brothers = brother not said here | king | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
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/pg27200/210/21/