Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 12
One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this ‘satiable Elephant’s Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before.
Who acts: Child, Elephant · What happens: ask, not ask · To what, where: new fine question
This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Child, Elephant), 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 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 3 morning | nummod |
| 2 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 morning | amod |
| 3 | morning | morning | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | in | in | ADP | _ | 6 middle | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 middle | det |
| 6 | middle | middle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 morning | nmod |
| 7 | of | of | ADP | _ | 9 Precession | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 Precession | det |
| 9 | Precession | Precession | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 middle | nmod |
| 10 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 Equinoxes | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 Equinoxes | det |
| 12 | Equinoxes | Equinox | PROPN | Number=Plur | 9 Precession | nmod |
| 13 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 9 Precession | conj |
| 14 | ‘ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 19 asked | punct |
| 15 | satiable | satiable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 Elephant | amod |
| 16 | Elephant | Elephant | PROPN | Number=Sing | 18 Child | nmod:poss |
| 17 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 16 Elephant | case |
| 18 | Child | child | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 asked | nsubj |
| 19 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 this | conj |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 question | det |
| 21 | new | new | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 question | amod |
| 22 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 question | amod |
| 23 | question | question | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 asked | obj |
| 24 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 28 asked | mark |
| 25 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 asked | nsubj |
| 26 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 asked | aux |
| 27 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 28 asked | advmod |
| 28 | asked | ask | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 23 question | acl:relcl |
| 29 | before | before | ADV | _ | 28 asked | advmod |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 morning | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | satiable Elephant's Child | a new fine question | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | not ask speech: ask | past · perfect | Elephant | a new fine question not said here | before property | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=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: «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/pg2781/6/12/