Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Elfin Hill, sentence 1
A few large lizards were running nimbly about in the clefts of an old tree; they could understand one another very well, for they spoke the lizard language.
Who acts: few large lizards, lizards · What happens: run, understand, speak · To what, where: clefts, one, lizard language · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elfin Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (few large lizards, lizards), 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 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 lizards | det |
| 2 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 lizards | amod |
| 3 | large | large | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 lizards | amod |
| 4 | lizards | lizard | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 running | nsubj |
| 5 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 running | aux |
| 6 | running | run | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 7 | nimbly | nimbly | ADV | _ | 8 about | advmod |
| 8 | about | about | ADV | _ | 6 running | advmod |
| 9 | in | in | ADP | _ | 11 clefts | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 clefts | det |
| 11 | clefts | cleft | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 running | obl |
| 12 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 tree | case |
| 13 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 tree | det |
| 14 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 tree | amod |
| 15 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 clefts | nmod |
| 16 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 19 understand | punct |
| 17 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 understand | nsubj |
| 18 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 19 understand | aux |
| 19 | understand | understand | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 running | parataxis |
| 20 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 19 understand | obj |
| 21 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 20 one | fixed |
| 22 | very | very | ADV | _ | 23 well | advmod |
| 23 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 19 understand | advmod |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 spoke | punct |
| 25 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 27 spoke | mark |
| 26 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 spoke | nsubj |
| 27 | spoke | speak | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 understand | conj |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 language | det |
| 29 | lizard | lizard | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 language | compound |
| 30 | language | language | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 spoke | obj |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 running | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | run | past · progressive | a few large lizards | the clefts of a old tree | about property | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in cleft=Trajectory | |||
| 2 | understand | could | lizards = lizard | one | well property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus | |||
| 3 | speak speech: other | past | lizards = lizard | the lizard language | tree rules |
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/pg27200/31/1/