The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 83
They were as white as snow which had fallen during the night, and their long necks with yellow bills were stretched southwards, for they were going--they did not quite know whither--but to a land where the sun shone all day.
Who acts: globe, snow, sun · What happens: be, fall, stretch, go, not know, shine · To what, where: long necks
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 (globe, snow, sun), 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 | 4 white | nsubj |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 white | cop |
| 3 | as | as | ADV | _ | 4 white | advmod |
| 4 | white | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | as | as | ADP | _ | 6 snow | case |
| 6 | snow | snow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 white | obl |
| 7 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 9 fallen | nsubj |
| 8 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 fallen | aux |
| 9 | fallen | fall | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 6 snow | acl:relcl |
| 10 | during | during | ADP | _ | 12 night | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 night | det |
| 12 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 fallen | obl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 stretched | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 stretched | cc |
| 15 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 necks | nmod:poss |
| 16 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 necks | amod |
| 17 | necks | neck | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 stretched | nsubj:pass |
| 18 | with | with | ADP | _ | 20 bills | case |
| 19 | yellow | yellow | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 bills | amod |
| 20 | bills | bill | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 stretched | obl |
| 21 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 stretched | aux:pass |
| 22 | stretched | stretch | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 white | parataxis |
| 23 | southwards | southwards | ADV | _ | 22 stretched | advmod |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 going | punct |
| 25 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 28 going | mark |
| 26 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 going | nsubj |
| 27 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 going | aux |
| 28 | going | go | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 22 stretched | conj |
| 29 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 34 know | punct |
| 30 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 know | nsubj |
| 31 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 know | aux |
| 32 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 34 know | advmod |
| 33 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 34 know | advmod |
| 34 | know | know | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 28 going | conj |
| 35 | whither | whither | ADV | PronType=Int | 34 know | advmod |
| 36 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 44 shone | punct |
| 37 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 44 shone | cc |
| 38 | to | to | ADP | _ | 40 land | case |
| 39 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 40 land | det |
| 40 | land | land | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 shone | obl |
| 41 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 44 shone | advmod |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 sun | det |
| 43 | sun | sun | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 shone | nsubj |
| 44 | shone | shine | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 white | parataxis |
| 45 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 46 day | det |
| 46 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 shone | obl:unmarked |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 white | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | globe | as snow; white property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | fall | past · perfect | snow | night | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | stretch | past · passive | globe's long necks | with yellow bills; southwards property | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: subject=Patient with bill=Instrument | ||||
| 4 | go | past · progressive | globe | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | not know | past · do-support | globe | whither property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 6 | shine | past | the sun | day | to a land | vn light_emission-43.1 «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/pg3027/9/83/