Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 12

Cael then began to move his limbs as if they were the wings of a fly, or the fins of a little fish, or as if they were the six legs of a terrified spider.

Who acts: Cael, limbs · What happens: begin, move, be · To what, where: fins, limbs

This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cael, limbs), 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	Cael	Cael	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 began	nsubj
2	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 began	advmod
3	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 move	mark
5	move	move	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 began	xcomp
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 limbs	nmod:poss
7	limbs	limb	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 move	obj
8	as	as	ADP	_	13 wings	case
9	if	if	SCONJ	_	13 wings	mark
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 wings	nsubj
11	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 wings	cop
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 wings	det
13	wings	wing	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 move	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 fly	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 fly	det
16	fly	fly	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 wings	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 fins	punct
18	or	or	CCONJ	_	20 fins	cc
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 fins	det
20	fins	fin	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 began	obl
21	of	of	ADP	_	24 fish	case
22	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	24 fish	det
23	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 fish	amod
24	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 fins	nmod
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 legs	punct
26	or	or	CCONJ	_	33 legs	cc
27	as	as	ADP	_	33 legs	case
28	if	if	SCONJ	_	33 legs	mark
29	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 legs	nsubj
30	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 legs	cop
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 legs	det
32	six	six	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	33 legs	nummod
33	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 began	obl
34	of	of	ADP	_	37 spider	case
35	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	37 spider	det
36	terrified	terrified	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 spider	amod
37	spider	spider	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 legs	nmod
38	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 began	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	begin	past	Cael	the fins of a little fish	then		vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	move	to-infinitive	Cael not said here	Cael's limbs			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent limb=Theme
3	is a condition, not said to happen	past	limbs = limb			as the wings; of a fly	tree rules
4	is a condition, not said to happen	past	limbs = limb			as the six legs; of a terrified spider	tree rules

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/pg2892/52/12/