The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 8
The little ducks tried hard to make their small fat bodies copy the movements of their mother, and the old lady was quite pleased with them; but the rest of the ducks looked on discontentedly, and said to each other:
Who acts: little ducks, small fat bodies, old lady, rest · What happens: try, make, copy, be, look, say · To what, where: movements, each, mother · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little ducks, small fat bodies, old lady, rest), 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 | 3 ducks | det |
| 2 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 ducks | amod |
| 3 | ducks | duck | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 tried | nsubj |
| 4 | tried | try | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | hard | hard | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 tried | xcomp |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 make | mark |
| 7 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 hard | xcomp |
| 8 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 bodies | nmod:poss |
| 9 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 bodies | amod |
| 10 | fat | fat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 bodies | compound |
| 11 | bodies | body | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 copy | nsubj |
| 12 | copy | copy | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 make | parataxis |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 movements | det |
| 14 | movements | movement | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 copy | obj |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 mother | case |
| 16 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 mother | nmod:poss |
| 17 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 movements | nmod |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 pleased | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 pleased | cc |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 lady | det |
| 21 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 lady | amod |
| 22 | lady | lady | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 pleased | nsubj |
| 23 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 pleased | cop |
| 24 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 25 pleased | advmod |
| 25 | pleased | pleased | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 copy | conj |
| 26 | with | with | ADP | _ | 27 them | case |
| 27 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 pleased | obl |
| 28 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 35 looked | punct |
| 29 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 35 looked | cc |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 rest | det |
| 31 | rest | rest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 looked | nsubj |
| 32 | of | of | ADP | _ | 34 ducks | case |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 ducks | det |
| 34 | ducks | duck | NOUN | Number=Plur | 31 rest | nmod |
| 35 | looked | look | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 tried | conj |
| 36 | on | on | ADP | _ | 37 discontentedly | case |
| 37 | discontentedly | discontentedly | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 35 looked | obl |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 said | punct |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 said | cc |
| 40 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 tried | conj |
| 41 | to | to | ADP | _ | 42 each | case |
| 42 | each | each | DET | ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp | 40 said | obl |
| 43 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 42 each | fixed |
| 44 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 4 tried | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | try | past | the little ducks | hard property | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 2 | make | to-infinitive | the little ducks not said here | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset | |||||
| 3 | copy | present | parents's small fat bodies | the movements of parents's mother | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent movement=Theme | ||||
| 4 | is | past | the old lady | with parents = parent; pleased property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | look | past | the rest of the ducks | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on discontentedly=Theme | |||||
| 6 | say speech: assert | past | the little ducks not said here | each | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to each=Recipient | ||||
| 7 | move | parents's mother | nom movement «act transitive»: of=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/pg3027/9/8/