Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter VI, sentence 10
If he had been able to do so he might have spoken harshly to his dogs, but he could not; it was unthinkable that he should; and the boy might have spoken harshly to him if he had dared to do it.
Who acts: Fionn, hound · What happens: be, do, speak, dare · To what, where: boy, Fionn, hound · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter VI. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fionn, hound), 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 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 5 able | mark |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 able | nsubj |
| 3 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 able | aux |
| 4 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 5 able | cop |
| 5 | able | able | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 do | mark |
| 7 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 able | xcomp |
| 8 | so | so | ADV | _ | 12 spoken | advmod |
| 9 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 spoken | nsubj |
| 10 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 12 spoken | aux |
| 11 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 12 spoken | aux |
| 12 | spoken | speak | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 7 do | advcl |
| 13 | harshly | harshly | ADV | _ | 12 spoken | advmod |
| 14 | to | to | ADP | _ | 16 dogs | case |
| 15 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 dogs | nmod:poss |
| 16 | dogs | dog | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 harshly | obl |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 unthinkable | punct |
| 18 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 25 unthinkable | cc |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 could | nsubj |
| 20 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 25 unthinkable | aux |
| 21 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 20 could | advmod |
| 22 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 20 could | punct |
| 23 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 unthinkable | nsubj |
| 24 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 unthinkable | cop |
| 25 | unthinkable | unthinkable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 able | conj |
| 26 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 28 should | mark |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 should | nsubj |
| 28 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 25 unthinkable | advcl |
| 29 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 35 spoken | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 spoken | cc |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 boy | det |
| 32 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 spoken | nsubj:pass |
| 33 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 35 spoken | aux |
| 34 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 35 spoken | aux |
| 35 | spoken | speak | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 able | parataxis |
| 36 | harshly | harshly | ADV | _ | 38 him | advmod |
| 37 | to | to | ADP | _ | 38 him | case |
| 38 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 spoken | obl |
| 39 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 42 dared | mark |
| 40 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 dared | nsubj |
| 41 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 dared | aux |
| 42 | dared | dare | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 35 spoken | advcl |
| 43 | to | to | PART | _ | 44 do | mark |
| 44 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 42 dared | xcomp |
| 45 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 44 do | obj |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 able | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past · perfect | Fionn | able property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | do | to-infinitive | Fionn not said here | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | speak speech: other | might · perfect | Fionn | harshly property | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | is | could | hound | unthinkable property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | speak speech: other | might · perfect · passive | the boy | Fionn | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | dare a condition, not said to happen | past · perfect | Fionn | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 7 | do | to-infinitive | Fionn not said here | hound | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
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/pg2892/38/10/