Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 24
He used to try to chase a fish the way he chased hares in the bumpy field--but there are terrible spurts in a fish.
Who acts: Fionn, terrible spurts · What happens: use, try, chase, be · To what, where: fish, hares, bumpy field
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter IV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fionn, terrible spurts), 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 used | nsubj |
| 2 | used | use | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | PART | _ | 4 try | mark |
| 4 | try | try | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 used | xcomp |
| 5 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 chase | mark |
| 6 | chase | chase | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 try | xcomp |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 fish | det |
| 8 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 chase | obj |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 way | det |
| 10 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 chase | obl:unmarked |
| 11 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 chased | nsubj |
| 12 | chased | chase | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 way | acl:relcl |
| 13 | hares | hare | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 chased | obj |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 17 field | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 field | det |
| 16 | bumpy | bumpy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 field | amod |
| 17 | field | field | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 chased | obl |
| 18 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 21 are | punct |
| 19 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 21 are | cc |
| 20 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 21 are | expl |
| 21 | are | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 used | conj |
| 22 | terrible | terrible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 spurts | amod |
| 23 | spurts | spurt | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 are | nsubj |
| 24 | in | in | ADP | _ | 26 fish | case |
| 25 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 26 fish | det |
| 26 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 are | obl |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 used | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | use | past | Fionn | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | try | to-infinitive | Fionn not said here | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 3 | chase not said to happen | to-infinitive | Fionn not said here | a fish | the way obl:unmarked | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Theme | |||
| 4 | chase | past | Fionn | hares | the bumpy field | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent hare=Theme in field=Trajectory | |||
| 5 | does | present | terrible spurts | there | in a fish | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in fish=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: «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Project Gutenberg book 2892 (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/pg2892/17/24/