Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1, sentence 63

They had more beautiful voices than any human being could have; and before the approach of a storm, and when they expected a ship would be lost, they swam before the vessel, and sang sweetly of the delights to be found in the depths of the sea, and begging the sailors not to fear if they sank to the bottom.

Who acts: sisters, begging, storm · What happens: have, be, expect, lose, swim, sing · To what, where: beautiful voices, ship, vessel, depths, sailors · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sisters, begging, storm), 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	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 beautiful	advmod
4	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 voices	amod
5	voices	voice	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 had	obj
6	than	than	ADP	_	7 any	case
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	5 voices	nmod
8	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 have	advcl
9	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 have	cop
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 have	aux
11	have	have	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	7 any	parataxis
12	;	;	PUNCT	_	16 approach	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 approach	cc
14	before	before	ADP	_	16 approach	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 approach	det
16	approach	approach	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	conj
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 storm	case
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 storm	det
19	storm	storm	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 approach	nmod
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	32 swam	punct
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	32 swam	cc
22	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	24 expected	advmod
23	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 expected	nsubj
24	expected	expect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	32 swam	advcl
25	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	26 ship	det
26	ship	ship	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 lost	nsubj:pass
27	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	29 lost	aux
28	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	29 lost	aux:pass
29	lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	24 expected	ccomp
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 expected	punct
31	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 swam	nsubj
32	swam	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 had	parataxis
33	before	before	ADP	_	35 vessel	case
34	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	35 vessel	det
35	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 swam	obl
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 sang	punct
37	and	and	CCONJ	_	38 sang	cc
38	sang	sing	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	32 swam	conj
39	sweetly	sweetly	ADV	_	38 sang	advmod
40	of	of	ADP	_	42 delights	case
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 delights	det
42	delights	delight	NOUN	Number=Plur	38 sang	obl
43	to	to	PART	_	45 found	mark
44	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	45 found	aux:pass
45	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	42 delights	acl
46	in	in	ADP	_	48 depths	case
47	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	48 depths	det
48	depths	depth	NOUN	Number=Plur	45 found	obl
49	of	of	ADP	_	51 sea	case
50	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	51 sea	det
51	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 depths	nmod
52	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 fear	punct
53	and	and	CCONJ	_	59 fear	cc
54	begging	beg	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	59 fear	csubj
55	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	56 sailors	det
56	sailors	sailor	NOUN	Number=Plur	54 begging	obj
57	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	59 fear	advmod
58	to	to	PART	_	59 fear	mark
59	fear	fear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 had	parataxis
60	if	if	SCONJ	_	62 sank	mark
61	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	62 sank	nsubj
62	sank	sink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	59 fear	advcl
63	to	to	ADP	_	65 bottom	case
64	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	65 bottom	det
65	bottom	bottom	NOUN	Number=Sing	62 sank	obl
66	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 had	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	have	past	sisters = sister	beautiful voices		than any	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent voice=Patient
2	is	could · gerund				have property	tree rules
3	expect	past	sisters = sister				vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
4	lose	would · passive		a ship			vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality
5	swim	past	sisters = sister		the vessel		vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before vessel=Trajectory
6	sing speech: express	past	sisters = sister not said here			of the delights; sweetly property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
7	find	to-infinitive · passive	sisters = sister not said here		the depths of the sea		vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»
8	beg speech: request	gerund		the sailors			vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent sailor=Recipient
9	not fear	to-infinitive	begging				vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
10	sink a condition, not said to happen	past	sisters = sister			to the bottom	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
11	approach		a storm				nom approach «act intransitive»: of=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/75/63/