Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, VII. the Eagle's Nest, sentence 31
With great difficulty they contrived to drag the two ladders over the rock, and there they hung for some moments, swaying over the abyss; but no sooner had they fastened them together, than Rudy placed his foot on the lowest step.
Who acts: sides, Rudy · What happens: contrive, drag, hang, sway, have, fasten · To what, where: two ladders, rock, abyss, ladders, foot
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VII. the Eagle's Nest. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sides, Rudy), 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 | With | with | ADP | _ | 3 difficulty | case |
| 2 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 difficulty | amod |
| 3 | difficulty | difficulty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 contrived | obl |
| 4 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 contrived | nsubj |
| 5 | contrived | contrive | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 drag | mark |
| 7 | drag | drag | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 contrived | xcomp |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 ladders | det |
| 9 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 10 ladders | nummod |
| 10 | ladders | ladder | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 drag | obj |
| 11 | over | over | ADP | _ | 13 rock | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 rock | det |
| 13 | rock | rock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 drag | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 hung | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 hung | cc |
| 16 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 18 hung | expl |
| 17 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 hung | nsubj |
| 18 | hung | hang | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 contrived | conj |
| 19 | for | for | ADP | _ | 21 moments | case |
| 20 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 21 moments | det |
| 21 | moments | moment | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 hung | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 swaying | punct |
| 23 | swaying | sway | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 18 hung | advcl |
| 24 | over | over | ADP | _ | 26 abyss | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 abyss | det |
| 26 | abyss | abyss | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 swaying | obl |
| 27 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 31 had | punct |
| 28 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 31 had | cc |
| 29 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 30 sooner | det |
| 30 | sooner | soon | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 31 had | advmod |
| 31 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 contrived | parataxis |
| 32 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 fastened | nsubj |
| 33 | fastened | fasten | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 had | ccomp |
| 34 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 fastened | obj |
| 35 | together | together | ADV | _ | 33 fastened | advmod |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 placed | punct |
| 37 | than | than | SCONJ | _ | 39 placed | mark |
| 38 | Rudy | Rudy | PROPN | Number=Sing | 39 placed | nsubj |
| 39 | placed | place | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 had | conj |
| 40 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 41 foot | nmod:poss |
| 41 | foot | foot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 placed | obj |
| 42 | on | on | ADP | _ | 45 step | case |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 45 step | det |
| 44 | lowest | low | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 45 step | amod |
| 45 | step | step | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 placed | obl |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 contrived | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | contrive | past | sides = side | with great difficulty | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | drag | to-infinitive | sides = side not said here | the two ladders | the rock | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ladder=Theme | |||
| 3 | hang | past | sides = side | there | moment | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||
| 4 | sway | gerund | sides = side not said here | the abyss | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over abyss=Location | ||||
| 5 | have | past | soon property | tree rules | |||||
| 6 | fasten | past | sides = side | ladders = ladder | together property | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient | |||
| 7 | place | past | Rudy | Rudy's foot | on the lowest step | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent foot=Theme on step=Destination |
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/pg27200/58/31/