Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Tuk, sentence 27
The town now appeared small and poor, and the school-boys read in their books, which they carried under their arms, that it contained two thousand inhabitants; but this was a mere boast, for it did not contain so many.
Who acts: town, school boys, towns, castle, this · What happens: appear, read, carry, contain, be, not contain · To what, where: books, arms, thousand inhabitants, mere boast, many
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tuk. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (town, school boys, towns, castle), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 town | det |
| 2 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 appeared | nsubj |
| 3 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 appeared | advmod |
| 4 | appeared | appear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 appeared | xcomp |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 poor | cc |
| 7 | poor | poor | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 small | conj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 read | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 read | cc |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 boys | det |
| 11 | school | school | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 boys | compound |
| 12 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 11 school | punct |
| 13 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 read | nsubj |
| 14 | read | read | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 appeared | conj |
| 15 | in | in | ADP | _ | 17 books | case |
| 16 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 books | nmod:poss |
| 17 | books | book | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 read | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 carried | punct |
| 19 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 21 carried | obj |
| 20 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 carried | nsubj |
| 21 | carried | carry | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 books | acl:relcl |
| 22 | under | under | ADP | _ | 24 arms | case |
| 23 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 24 arms | nmod:poss |
| 24 | arms | arm | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 carried | obl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 contained | punct |
| 26 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 28 contained | mark |
| 27 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 contained | nsubj |
| 28 | contained | contain | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 carried | conj |
| 29 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 30 thousand | compound |
| 30 | thousand | thousand | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 31 inhabitants | nummod |
| 31 | inhabitants | inhabitant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 contained | obj |
| 32 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 38 boast | punct |
| 33 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 38 boast | cc |
| 34 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 38 boast | nsubj |
| 35 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 38 boast | cop |
| 36 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 38 boast | det |
| 37 | mere | mere | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 boast | amod |
| 38 | boast | boast | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 appeared | obl |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 44 contain | punct |
| 40 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 44 contain | mark |
| 41 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 44 contain | nsubj |
| 42 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 44 contain | aux |
| 43 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 44 contain | advmod |
| 44 | contain | contain | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 38 boast | parataxis |
| 45 | so | so | ADV | _ | 46 many | advmod |
| 46 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 44 contain | obj |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 appeared | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | appear | past | the town | now | small property | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||
| 2 | read | present | the school boys | towns's books | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | carry | past | towns = town | towns's books | towns's arms | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Theme | |||
| 4 | contain | past | castle | thousand inhabitants | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot inhabitant=Theme | ||||
| 5 | is a | past | this | a mere boast | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | not contain | past · do-support | castle | many | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot many=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/pg27200/80/27/