The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 30, sentence 21
They were so near that he could almost seize their tails, yet each time he felt sure he could catch them his fingers closed on the empty air.
Who acts: eyes, wisdom · What happens: seize, feel, catch, close · To what, where: tails, time, eyes, empty air
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyes, wisdom), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 seize | nsubj |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 seize | aux |
| 3 | so | so | ADV | _ | 9 seize | advmod |
| 4 | near | near | ADP | _ | 9 seize | mark |
| 5 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 9 seize | mark |
| 6 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 seize | nsubj |
| 7 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 9 seize | aux |
| 8 | almost | almost | ADV | _ | 9 seize | advmod |
| 9 | seize | seize | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 10 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 tails | nmod:poss |
| 11 | tails | tail | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 seize | obj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 sure | punct |
| 13 | yet | yet | CCONJ | _ | 18 sure | cc |
| 14 | each | each | DET | PronType=Tot | 15 time | det |
| 15 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 sure | obl:unmarked |
| 16 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 felt | nsubj |
| 17 | felt | feel | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 time | acl:relcl |
| 18 | sure | sure | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 seize | advcl |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 catch | nsubj |
| 20 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 21 catch | aux |
| 21 | catch | catch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 sure | ccomp |
| 22 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 catch | obj |
| 23 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 24 fingers | nmod:poss |
| 24 | fingers | finger | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 catch | obj |
| 25 | closed | close | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 21 catch | xcomp |
| 26 | on | on | ADP | _ | 29 air | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 air | det |
| 28 | empty | empty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 air | amod |
| 29 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 closed | obl |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 seize | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | seize | could · past | eyes = eye | eyes's tails | almost property | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Theme | |||
| 2 | feel | past | wisdom | each time not said here | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent time=Theme | ||||
| 3 | catch | could | wisdom | eyes = eye | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | close | participle | wisdom not said here | the empty air | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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: «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/pg3027/30/21/