The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 6, sentence 52

If I could only dine off that fox I saw a fortnight ago, curled up into a delicious hairy ball, I should ask nothing better; I would have eaten her then, but unluckily her husband was lying beside her, and one knows that foxes, great and small, run like the wind.

Who acts: I, dine fox, husband, one · What happens: dine off, see, curl up, ask, eat, lie · To what, where: delicious hairy ball, nothing, plenty

This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, dine fox, husband, one), 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	If	if	SCONJ	_	5 dine	mark
2	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	5 dine	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 dine	aux
4	only	only	ADV	_	5 dine	advmod
5	dine	dine	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 fox	compound
6	off	off	ADP	_	5 dine	compound:prt
7	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	8 fox	det
8	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 saw	nsubj
9	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 saw	nsubj
10	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 fortnight	det
12	fortnight	fortnight	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 ago	obl:unmarked
13	ago	ago	ADV	_	10 saw	advmod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 curled	punct
15	curled	curl	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 saw	conj
16	up	up	ADP	_	15 curled	compound:prt
17	into	into	ADP	_	21 ball	case
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 ball	det
19	delicious	delicious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 ball	amod
20	hairy	hairy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 ball	amod
21	ball	ball	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 curled	obl
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 ask	punct
23	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	25 ask	nsubj
24	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	25 ask	aux
25	ask	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 saw	conj
26	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	25 ask	obj
27	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	25 ask	advmod
28	;	;	PUNCT	_	32 eaten	punct
29	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	32 eaten	nsubj
30	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	32 eaten	aux
31	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	32 eaten	aux
32	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	10 saw	conj
33	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	32 eaten	obj
34	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	32 eaten	advmod
35	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 lying	punct
36	but	but	CCONJ	_	41 lying	cc
37	unluckily	unluckily	ADV	_	41 lying	advmod
38	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	39 husband	nmod:poss
39	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 lying	nsubj
40	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	41 lying	aux
41	lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 saw	conj
42	beside	beside	ADP	_	43 her	case
43	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 lying	obl
44	,	,	PUNCT	_	47 knows	punct
45	and	and	CCONJ	_	47 knows	cc
46	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	47 knows	nsubj
47	knows	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	41 lying	parataxis
48	that	that	SCONJ	_	51 great	mark
49	foxes	fox	NOUN	Number=Plur	51 great	nsubj
50	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 great	punct
51	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 knows	ccomp
52	and	and	CCONJ	_	53 small	cc
53	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	51 great	conj
54	,	,	PUNCT	_	55 run	punct
55	run	run	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	51 great	conj
56	like	like	ADP	_	58 wind	case
57	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	58 wind	det
58	wind	wind	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 run	obl:agent
59	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 saw	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dine off a condition, not said to happen	could	I					vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	see	past	that dine fox				ago property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	curl up	participle	that dine fox not said here		a delicious hairy ball			vn coil-9.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into ball=Destination
4	ask speech: ask	should	I	nothing			well property	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent nothing=Recipient
5	eat	would · perfect	I	plenty		then		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent her=Patient
6	lie	past · progressive	plenty's husband				beside plenty; unluckily property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beside she=Location
7	know	present	one					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
8	run	participle	one not said here					vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg3027/6/52/