The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 31, sentence 32
But, if he could swim well, the duck could swim better, and at length his strength failed him, and he was forced to seek the land.
Who acts: duck, length · What happens: swim, fail, force, seek · To what, where: duck, land
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (duck, length), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 12 swim | cc |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 But | punct |
| 3 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 6 swim | mark |
| 4 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 swim | nsubj |
| 5 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 6 swim | aux |
| 6 | swim | swim | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 swim | advcl |
| 7 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 6 swim | advmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 swim | punct |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 duck | det |
| 10 | duck | duck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 swim | nsubj |
| 11 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 12 swim | aux |
| 12 | swim | swim | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 13 | better | well | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 12 swim | advmod |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 failed | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 failed | cc |
| 16 | at | at | ADP | _ | 17 length | case |
| 17 | length | length | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 failed | nsubj |
| 18 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 strength | nmod:poss |
| 19 | strength | strength | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 length | obj |
| 20 | failed | fail | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 swim | parataxis |
| 21 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 failed | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 forced | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 forced | cc |
| 24 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 forced | nsubj:pass |
| 25 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 forced | aux:pass |
| 26 | forced | force | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 failed | conj |
| 27 | to | to | PART | _ | 28 seek | mark |
| 28 | seek | seek | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 26 forced | xcomp |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 land | det |
| 30 | land | land | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 seek | obj |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 swim | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | swim a condition, not said to happen | could | duck | well property | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | swim | could | the duck | well property | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | fail | past | length | duck | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality | ||||
| 4 | force | past · passive | duck | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | seek | to-infinitive | duck not said here | the land | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent land=Theme |
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/pg3027/31/32/