The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 3, sentence 25

The fakeer replied that he was asking a very difficult, and perhaps a very dangerous, thing; but that he would pray for him, and perhaps he might be able to do it; only he warned the king both against the dangers of his unbelief, and against the curiosity which prompted him to ask this thing.

Who acts: fakeer, curiosity · What happens: reply, ask, pray, be, do, warn · To what, where: dangerous thing, difficult, thing, king

This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fakeer, curiosity), 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	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fakeer	det
2	fakeer	fakeer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 replied	nsubj
3	replied	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 asking	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 asking	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 asking	aux
7	asking	ask	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 replied	advcl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 difficult	det
9	very	very	ADV	_	10 difficult	advmod
10	difficult	difficult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 asking	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 thing	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 thing	cc
13	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	_	18 thing	advmod
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 thing	det
15	very	very	ADV	_	16 dangerous	advmod
16	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 thing	amod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 dangerous	punct
18	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 replied	obl
19	;	;	PUNCT	_	24 pray	punct
20	but	but	CCONJ	_	24 pray	cc
21	that	that	SCONJ	_	24 pray	mark
22	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 pray	nsubj
23	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	24 pray	aux
24	pray	pray	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 replied	parataxis
25	for	for	ADP	_	26 him	case
26	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 pray	obl
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 able	punct
28	and	and	CCONJ	_	33 able	cc
29	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	_	33 able	advmod
30	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 able	nsubj
31	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	33 able	aux
32	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	33 able	cop
33	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 pray	conj
34	to	to	PART	_	35 do	mark
35	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	33 able	xcomp
36	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 do	obj
37	;	;	PUNCT	_	40 warned	punct
38	only	only	ADV	_	40 warned	advmod
39	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 warned	nsubj
40	warned	warn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 replied	parataxis
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 king	det
42	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 warned	obj
43	both	both	ADV	_	40 warned	advmod
44	against	against	ADP	_	46 dangers	case
45	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	46 dangers	det
46	dangers	danger	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 warned	obl
47	of	of	ADP	_	49 unbelief	case
48	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	49 unbelief	nmod:poss
49	unbelief	unbelief	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 dangers	nmod
50	,	,	PUNCT	_	54 curiosity	punct
51	and	and	CCONJ	_	54 curiosity	cc
52	against	against	ADP	_	54 curiosity	case
53	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	54 curiosity	det
54	curiosity	curiosity	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 warned	conj
55	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	56 prompted	nsubj
56	prompted	prompt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	54 curiosity	acl:relcl
57	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	56 prompted	obj
58	to	to	PART	_	59 ask	mark
59	ask	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	56 prompted	advcl
60	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	61 thing	det
61	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 ask	obj
62	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 replied	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	reply speech: assert	past	the fakeer	a dangerous thing			vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	ask speech: ask	past · progressive	fakeer	a difficult			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent difficult=Recipient
3	pray	would	fakeer			for King	vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for he=Theme
4	is	might	fakeer			able, perhaps property	tree rules
5	do	to-infinitive	fakeer not said here	thing			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality
6	warn speech: warn	past	fakeer		the king	against the dangers of King's unbelief; both property	vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent king=Recipient against danger=Topic
7	prompt	past	the curiosity	King			vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition he=Patient
8	ask speech: ask	to-infinitive	the curiosity not said here	this thing			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thing=Recipient

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/pg3027/3/25/