Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIV, sentence 8
There were old warriors with yard-long beards flying behind their shoulders llke wisps of hay, and when these were not nursing a broken arm or a cracked skull, it was because they were nursing wounds in their stomachs or their legs.
Who acts: old warriors, long beards, shoulders, these, skull · What happens: be, fly, llke, not nurse, break, crack · To what, where: wisps, broken arm, wounds, stomachs
This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old warriors, long beards, shoulders, these), 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 | There | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 2 were | expl |
| 2 | were | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 warriors | amod |
| 4 | warriors | warrior | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 were | nsubj |
| 5 | with | with | ADP | _ | 9 beards | case |
| 6 | yard | yard | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 long | compound |
| 7 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 6 yard | punct |
| 8 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 beards | amod |
| 9 | beards | beard | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 warriors | nmod |
| 10 | flying | fly | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 9 beards | acl |
| 11 | behind | behind | ADP | _ | 14 llke | mark |
| 12 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 shoulders | nmod:poss |
| 13 | shoulders | shoulder | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 llke | nsubj |
| 14 | llke | llke | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 flying | advcl |
| 15 | wisps | wisp | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 llke | obj |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 hay | case |
| 17 | hay | hay | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 wisps | nmod |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 nursing | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 nursing | cc |
| 20 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 24 nursing | advmod |
| 21 | these | this | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 24 nursing | nsubj |
| 22 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 nursing | aux |
| 23 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 24 nursing | advmod |
| 24 | nursing | nurse | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 2 were | advcl |
| 25 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 27 arm | det |
| 26 | broken | break | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 27 arm | amod |
| 27 | arm | arm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 nursing | obj |
| 28 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 31 skull | cc |
| 29 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 31 skull | det |
| 30 | cracked | crack | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 31 skull | amod |
| 31 | skull | skull | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 arm | conj |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 nursing | punct |
| 33 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 nursing | nsubj |
| 34 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 38 nursing | aux |
| 35 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 38 nursing | mark |
| 36 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 nursing | nsubj |
| 37 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 38 nursing | aux |
| 38 | nursing | nurse | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 24 nursing | advcl |
| 39 | wounds | wound | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 nursing | obj |
| 40 | in | in | ADP | _ | 42 stomachs | case |
| 41 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 stomachs | nmod:poss |
| 42 | stomachs | stomach | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 nursing | obl |
| 43 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 45 legs | cc |
| 44 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 45 legs | nmod:poss |
| 45 | legs | leg | NOUN | Number=Plur | 42 stomachs | conj |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 were | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | past | old warriors with long beards | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | fly | gerund | long beards not said here | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | llke | past | warriors's shoulders | wisps of hay | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | not nurse | past · progressive | these | a broken arm or a cracked skull | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent arm=Beneficiary | ||||
| 5 | break | participle | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 6 | crack | participle | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 7 | nurse | past · progressive | skull | wounds | warriors's stomachs or warriors's legs | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wound=Beneficiary |
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/pg2892/85/8/