Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 1, sentence 5

It has been repeated from mouth to mouth, from one stork-mamma to another, for thousands of years; and each has told it better than the last; and now we mean to tell it better than all.

Who acts: we · What happens: repeat, tell, mean · To what, where: youngest, mouth, each · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, 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 (we), 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 repeated	nsubj:pass
2	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 repeated	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 repeated	aux:pass
4	repeated	repeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 mouth	case
6	mouth	mouth	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 repeated	obl
7	to	to	ADP	_	8 mouth	case
8	mouth	mouth	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 mouth	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 mamma	punct
10	from	from	ADP	_	14 mamma	case
11	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 mamma	nummod
12	stork	stork	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 mamma	compound
13	-	-	PUNCT	_	12 stork	punct
14	mamma	mamma	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 repeated	obl
15	to	to	ADP	_	16 another	case
16	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	14 mamma	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 thousands	punct
18	for	for	ADP	_	19 thousands	case
19	thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 repeated	obl
20	of	of	ADP	_	21 years	case
21	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 thousands	nmod
22	;	;	PUNCT	_	26 told	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 told	cc
24	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	26 told	nsubj:pass
25	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	26 told	aux
26	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 repeated	conj
27	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 told	obj
28	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	26 told	advmod
29	than	than	ADP	_	31 last	case
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 last	det
31	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 better	obl
32	;	;	PUNCT	_	36 mean	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 mean	cc
34	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	36 mean	advmod
35	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	36 mean	nsubj
36	mean	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	26 told	conj
37	to	to	PART	_	38 tell	mark
38	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 mean	xcomp
39	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 tell	obj
40	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	38 tell	xcomp
41	than	than	ADP	_	42 all	case
42	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	40 better	obl
43	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 repeated	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	repeat	present · perfect · passive		youngest = young		mouth to mouth		from one stork mamma to another; for thousands of years	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality
2	tell speech: assert	present · perfect · passive		each	youngest = young			well property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient it=Topic
3	mean	present	we				now		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	tell speech: assert not said to happen	to-infinitive	we not said here		youngest = young			good property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient

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/pg27200/83/5/