Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 12
Or, again, caught in the chop of a broken sea, it stayed shuddering and backing, while above his head there was only a low sad sky, and around him the lap and wash of grey waves that were never the same and were never different.
Who acts: stone, grey waves · What happens: catch, break, stay, shudder, back, be · To what, where: chop, low sad sky, broken sea
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 (stone, grey waves), 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 | Or | or | CCONJ | _ | 5 caught | cc |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 caught | punct |
| 3 | again | again | ADV | _ | 5 caught | advmod |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 caught | punct |
| 5 | caught | catch | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | in | in | ADP | _ | 8 chop | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 chop | det |
| 8 | chop | chop | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 caught | obl |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 sea | case |
| 10 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 sea | det |
| 11 | broken | break | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 12 sea | amod |
| 12 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 chop | nmod |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 stayed | punct |
| 14 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 stayed | nsubj |
| 15 | stayed | stay | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 caught | conj |
| 16 | shuddering | shudder | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 15 stayed | xcomp |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 backing | cc |
| 18 | backing | back | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 16 shuddering | conj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 sky | punct |
| 20 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 30 sky | mark |
| 21 | above | above | ADP | _ | 23 head | case |
| 22 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 head | nmod:poss |
| 23 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 was | obl |
| 24 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 25 was | expl |
| 25 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 sky | cop |
| 26 | only | only | ADV | _ | 30 sky | advmod |
| 27 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 30 sky | det |
| 28 | low | low | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 sky | amod |
| 29 | sad | sad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 sky | amod |
| 30 | sky | sky | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 stayed | obl |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 him | punct |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 him | cc |
| 33 | around | around | ADP | _ | 34 him | case |
| 34 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 stayed | parataxis |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 lap | det |
| 36 | lap | lap | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 him | conj |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 wash | cc |
| 38 | wash | wash | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 lap | conj |
| 39 | of | of | ADP | _ | 41 waves | case |
| 40 | grey | grey | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 waves | amod |
| 41 | waves | wave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 wash | nmod |
| 42 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 46 same | nsubj |
| 43 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 46 same | cop |
| 44 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 46 same | advmod |
| 45 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 46 same | det |
| 46 | same | same | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 waves | acl:relcl |
| 47 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 50 different | cc |
| 48 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 50 different | cop |
| 49 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 50 different | advmod |
| 50 | different | different | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 same | conj |
| 51 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 caught | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | catch | participle | the chop of a broken sea | again | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | break | participle | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 3 | stay | past | stone | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | shudder | gerund | stone not said here | vn body_internal_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 5 | back | gerund | stone not said here | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 6 | is a | past | a low sad sky | tree rules | |||||
| 7 | not is | past | grey waves | same property | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | not is | past | grey waves not said here | different property | tree rules | ||||
| 9 | chop | a broken sea | nom chop «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg2892/66/12/