Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home, sentence 41

Once or twice, when the men thought the way was rather difficult for such a little boy, they held out their hands to assist him; but he would not accept their assistance, for he stood on the slippery ice as firmly as if he had been a chamois.

Who acts: men, way · What happens: think, be, hold out, assist, not accept, stand · To what, where: hands, way, assistance, slippery ice, chamois · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, II. the Journey to the New Home. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, way), 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	Once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	8 thought	advmod
2	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 twice	cc
3	twice	twice	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	1 Once	conj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 thought	punct
5	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 thought	advmod
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 men	det
7	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 thought	nsubj
8	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 way	det
10	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 difficult	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 difficult	cop
12	rather	rather	ADV	_	13 difficult	advmod
13	difficult	difficult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 thought	ccomp
14	for	for	ADP	_	18 boy	case
15	such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	18 boy	det:predet
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 boy	det
17	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 boy	amod
18	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 difficult	obl
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 held	punct
20	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 held	nsubj
21	held	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 thought	conj
22	out	out	ADP	_	21 held	compound:prt
23	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	24 hands	nmod:poss
24	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 held	obj
25	to	to	PART	_	26 assist	mark
26	assist	assist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	21 held	advcl
27	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 assist	obj
28	;	;	PUNCT	_	33 accept	punct
29	but	but	CCONJ	_	33 accept	cc
30	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 accept	nsubj
31	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	33 accept	aux
32	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	33 accept	advmod
33	accept	accept	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 thought	ccomp
34	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	35 assistance	nmod:poss
35	assistance	assistance	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 accept	obj
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 stood	punct
37	for	for	SCONJ	_	39 stood	mark
38	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 stood	nsubj
39	stood	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 accept	parataxis
40	on	on	ADP	_	43 ice	case
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 ice	det
42	slippery	slippery	ADJ	Degree=Pos	43 ice	amod
43	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 stood	obl
44	as	as	ADV	_	45 firmly	advmod
45	firmly	firmly	ADV	_	39 stood	advmod
46	as	as	SCONJ	_	52 chamois	mark
47	if	if	SCONJ	_	52 chamois	mark
48	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 chamois	nsubj
49	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	52 chamois	aux
50	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	52 chamois	cop
51	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	52 chamois	det
52	chamois	chamois	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 stood	advcl
53	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 thought	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	past	the men				once property	vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	is	past	the way				for such little boy; difficult property	tree rules
3	hold out	past	men = man	men's hands				vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme
4	assist	to-infinitive	men = man not said here		way			vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary
5	not accept	would	way	men's assistance				vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent assistance=Theme
6	stand	past	way			the slippery ice	firmly property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ice=Location
7	is a	past · perfect	way	a chamois				tree rules
8	assist		men = man					nom assistance «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.

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