The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 20, sentence 62
Smearing his face with dirt, and tearing his clothes so as to look like a beggar, he stopped the passers by and, on pretence of seeking money or food, he questioned them about the village gossip.
Who acts: man, pretence · What happens: smear, tear, look, stop, seek, question · To what, where: face, clothes, passers, money
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, pretence), 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 | Smearing | smear | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 20 stopped | advcl |
| 2 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 face | nmod:poss |
| 3 | face | face | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Smearing | obj |
| 4 | with | with | ADP | _ | 5 dirt | case |
| 5 | dirt | dirt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Smearing | obl |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 tearing | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 tearing | cc |
| 8 | tearing | tear | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 1 Smearing | conj |
| 9 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 clothes | nmod:poss |
| 10 | clothes | clothes | NOUN | Number=Ptan | 8 tearing | obj |
| 11 | so | so | ADV | _ | 8 tearing | advmod |
| 12 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 14 look | mark |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 look | mark |
| 14 | look | look | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 tearing | advcl |
| 15 | like | like | ADP | _ | 17 beggar | case |
| 16 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 17 beggar | det |
| 17 | beggar | beggar | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 look | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Smearing | punct |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 stopped | nsubj |
| 20 | stopped | stop | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 passers | det |
| 22 | passers | passer | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 stopped | obj |
| 23 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 35 questioned | mark |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 questioned | cc |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 pretence | punct |
| 26 | on | on | ADP | _ | 27 pretence | case |
| 27 | pretence | pretence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 questioned | nsubj |
| 28 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 29 seeking | mark |
| 29 | seeking | seek | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 27 pretence | acl |
| 30 | money | money | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 seeking | obj |
| 31 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 32 food | cc |
| 32 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 money | conj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 pretence | punct |
| 34 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 questioned | nsubj |
| 35 | questioned | question | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 stopped | advcl |
| 36 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 questioned | obj |
| 37 | about | about | ADP | _ | 40 gossip | case |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 gossip | det |
| 39 | village | village | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 gossip | compound |
| 40 | gossip | gossip | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 questioned | obl |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 20 stopped | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | smear | gerund | man not said here | man's face | with dirt | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent face=Destination with dirt=Theme | |||
| 2 | tear | gerund | man not said here | man's clothes | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location clothes=Theme | ||||
| 3 | look | to-infinitive | man not said here | like a beggar | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | stop | past | man | the passers | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector passer=Eventuality | ||||
| 5 | seek | gerund | pretence not said here | money or food | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Theme | ||||
| 6 | question speech: other | past | pretence | passers = passer | about the village gossip | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent they=Recipient about gossip=Topic |
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: «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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/pg3027/20/62/