Just so stories, The Butterfly That Stamped, sentence 9

He understood what the rocks said deep under the earth when they bowed in towards each other and groaned; and he understood what the trees said when they rustled in the middle of the morning.

Who acts: Suleiman, rocks, trees · What happens: understand, say, bow, groan, rustle · To what, where: each, middle · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Butterfly That Stamped. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Suleiman, rocks, trees), 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	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 understood	nsubj
2	understood	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	6 said	obj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rocks	det
5	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 said	nsubj
6	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 understood	ccomp
7	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 said	xcomp
8	under	under	ADP	_	10 earth	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 earth	det
10	earth	earth	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 deep	obl
11	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	13 bowed	advmod
12	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 bowed	nsubj
13	bowed	bow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 earth	acl:relcl
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 each	case
15	towards	towards	ADP	_	16 each	case
16	each	each	DET	ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp	13 bowed	obl
17	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 each	fixed
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 groaned	cc
19	groaned	groan	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 bowed	conj
20	;	;	PUNCT	_	23 understood	punct
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	23 understood	cc
22	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 understood	nsubj
23	understood	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 understood	conj
24	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	27 said	obj
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 trees	det
26	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	27 said	nsubj
27	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 understood	parataxis
28	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	30 rustled	advmod
29	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 rustled	nsubj
30	rustled	rustle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	27 said	ccomp
31	in	in	ADP	_	33 middle	case
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 middle	det
33	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 rustled	obl
34	of	of	ADP	_	36 morning	case
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 morning	det
36	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 middle	nmod
37	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 understood	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	understand	past	Suleiman			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	say speech: assert	past	the rocks		deep property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic
3	bow	past	rocks = rock	each		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in each=Location
4	groan	past	rocks = rock not said here			vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	understand	past	Suleiman			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
6	say speech: assert	past	the trees			tree rules
7	rustle	past	trees = tree	the middle of the morning		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in middle=Location

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: «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, Project Gutenberg book 2781 (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/pg2781/13/9/