Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2, sentence 4
A dreadful storm was approaching; once more the sails were reefed, and the great ship pursued her flying course over the raging sea.
Who acts: dreadful storm, great ship · What happens: approach, reef, pursue, fly, rage · To what, where: sails, storm, course, raging sea
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dreadful storm, great ship), 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 | 3 storm | det |
| 2 | dreadful | dreadful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 storm | amod |
| 3 | storm | storm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 approaching | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 approaching | aux |
| 5 | approaching | approach | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 6 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 12 reefed | punct |
| 7 | once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 12 reefed | advmod |
| 8 | more | more | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 12 reefed | advmod |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 sails | det |
| 10 | sails | sail | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 reefed | nsubj:pass |
| 11 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 reefed | aux:pass |
| 12 | reefed | reef | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 approaching | conj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 pursued | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 pursued | cc |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 ship | det |
| 16 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 ship | amod |
| 17 | ship | ship | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 pursued | nsubj |
| 18 | pursued | pursue | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 approaching | conj |
| 19 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 pursued | obj |
| 20 | flying | fly | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 18 pursued | xcomp |
| 21 | course | course | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 flying | obj |
| 22 | over | over | ADP | _ | 25 sea | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 sea | det |
| 24 | raging | rage | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 25 sea | amod |
| 25 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 flying | obl |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 approaching | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | approach | past · progressive | a dreadful storm | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | reef | past · passive | the sails | once property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | pursue | past | the great ship | storm | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | fly | gerund | the great ship not said here | course | the raging sea | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent course=Theme over sea=Location | |||
| 5 | rage | gerund | vn entity_specific_modes_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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/pg27200/76/4/