Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter XIX, sentence 3

For there were hatchetmen on guard in the big gateway, and there were spearmen at short intervals around the walls, and men to throw hot porridge off the roof were standing in the right places.

Who acts: hatchetmen, spearmen, men · What happens: be, throw, stand · To what, where: hot porridge, roof, right places

This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter XIX. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hatchetmen, spearmen, men), 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	For	for	SCONJ	_	3 were	mark
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	3 were	expl
3	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 were	advcl
4	hatchetmen	hatchetmen	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 were	nsubj
5	on	on	ADP	_	6 guard	case
6	guard	guard	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hatchetmen	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	10 gateway	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 gateway	det
9	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 gateway	amod
10	gateway	gateway	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 guard	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 were	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 were	cc
13	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	14 were	expl
14	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 standing	advcl
15	spearmen	spearmen	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 were	nsubj
16	at	at	ADP	_	18 intervals	case
17	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 intervals	amod
18	intervals	interval	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 spearmen	nmod
19	around	around	ADP	_	21 walls	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 walls	det
21	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 intervals	nmod
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 standing	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	33 standing	cc
24	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 standing	nsubj
25	to	to	PART	_	26 throw	mark
26	throw	throw	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	24 men	acl
27	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 porridge	amod
28	porridge	porridge	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 throw	obj
29	off	off	ADP	_	31 roof	case
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 roof	det
31	roof	roof	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 throw	obl
32	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 standing	aux
33	standing	stand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
34	in	in	ADP	_	37 places	case
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 places	det
36	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 places	amod
37	places	place	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 standing	obl
38	.	.	PUNCT	_	33 standing	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	be	past	hatchetmen on guard in the big gateway		there	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	be	past	spearmen at short intervals around the walls		there	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	throw	to-infinitive	men not said here	hot porridge	the roof	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent porridge=Theme off roof=Initial_Location
4	stand	past · progressive	men		the right places	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in place=Location

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/pg2892/90/3/