Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter IV, sentence 6
They pursued him with a savagery which he could not distinguish from hatred, and they swished him well whenever they got the chance.
Who acts: nurses, Fionn · What happens: pursue, not distinguish, swish, get · To what, where: Fionn, savagery, chance
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 (nurses, Fionn), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 pursued | nsubj |
| 2 | pursued | pursue | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 pursued | obj |
| 4 | with | with | ADP | _ | 6 savagery | case |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 savagery | det |
| 6 | savagery | savagery | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 pursued | obl |
| 7 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 11 distinguish | obj |
| 8 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 distinguish | nsubj |
| 9 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 11 distinguish | aux |
| 10 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 11 distinguish | advmod |
| 11 | distinguish | distinguish | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 savagery | acl:relcl |
| 12 | from | from | ADP | _ | 13 hatred | case |
| 13 | hatred | hatred | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 distinguish | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 swished | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 swished | cc |
| 16 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 swished | nsubj |
| 17 | swished | swish | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 pursued | conj |
| 18 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 swished | obj |
| 19 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 17 swished | advmod |
| 20 | whenever | whenever | ADV | PronType=Rel | 22 got | advmod |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 got | nsubj |
| 22 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 swished | advcl |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 chance | det |
| 24 | chance | chance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 got | obj |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 pursued | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pursue | past | nurses = nurse | Fionn | with a savagery | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | |||
| 2 | not distinguish | could | Fionn | a savagery | from hatred | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent which=Theme from hatred=Co-Theme | |||
| 3 | swish | past | nurses = nurse | Fionn | well property | vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location he=Theme | |||
| 4 | get | past | nurses = nurse | the chance | whenever property | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer chance=Stimulus |
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/pg2892/17/6/