The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 36, sentence 86
He wandered on, his eyes fixed on the sands, so that he did not see the bailiff drive his boat behind a rock, while he changed himself into a heap of wreckage which floated in on the waves.
Who acts: boy, bailiff, wreckage · What happens: wander, fix, not see, drive, change, float · To what, where: eyes, sands, bailiff, boat, rock, boy
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, bailiff, wreckage), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Checked tree. This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (gutenberg:pg3027:2353): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 wandered | nsubj |
| 2 | wandered | wander | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | on | on | ADV | _ | 2 wandered | advmod |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 fixed | punct |
| 5 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 eyes | nmod:poss |
| 6 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 fixed | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | fixed | fix | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 wandered | advcl |
| 8 | on | on | ADP | _ | 10 sands | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 sands | det |
| 10 | sands | sand | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 fixed | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 see | punct |
| 12 | so | so | SCONJ | _ | 17 see | mark |
| 13 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 12 so | fixed |
| 14 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 see | nsubj |
| 15 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 see | aux |
| 16 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 17 see | advmod |
| 17 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 wandered | advcl |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 bailiff | det |
| 19 | bailiff | bailiff | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 see | obj |
| 20 | drive | drive | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 see | xcomp |
| 21 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 boat | nmod:poss |
| 22 | boat | boat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 drive | obj |
| 23 | behind | behind | ADP | _ | 25 rock | case |
| 24 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 25 rock | det |
| 25 | rock | rock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 drive | obl |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 changed | punct |
| 27 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 29 changed | mark |
| 28 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 changed | nsubj |
| 29 | changed | change | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 drive | advcl |
| 30 | himself | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 29 changed | obj |
| 31 | into | into | ADP | _ | 33 heap | case |
| 32 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 33 heap | det |
| 33 | heap | heap | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 changed | obl |
| 34 | of | of | ADP | _ | 35 wreckage | case |
| 35 | wreckage | wreckage | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 heap | nmod |
| 36 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 37 floated | nsubj |
| 37 | floated | float | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 wreckage | acl:relcl |
| 38 | in | in | ADV | _ | 37 floated | advmod |
| 39 | on | on | ADP | _ | 41 waves | case |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 waves | det |
| 41 | waves | wave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 floated | obl |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 wandered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wander | past | boy | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | fix | participle · passive | boy's eyes | the sands | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: subject=Patient | ||||
| 3 | not see | past · do-support | boy | the bailiff | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | drive | infinitive | the bailiff not said here | boy's boat | a rock | vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent boat=Theme behind rock=Destination | |||
| 5 | change | past | boy | boy | into a heap of wreckage result | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent himself=Patient into heap=Result | |||
| 6 | float | past | wreckage | the waves | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on wave=Trajectory |
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: the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/36/86/