The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 85
But that was not possible, of course; and besides, what sort of companion could an ugly thing like him be to those beautiful beings?
Who acts: that, besides · What happens: not be, thing, be, sort · To what, where: companion
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 (that, besides), 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 | _ | 5 possible | cc |
| 2 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 5 possible | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 possible | cop |
| 4 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 possible | advmod |
| 5 | possible | possible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 of | punct |
| 7 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 possible | obl |
| 8 | course | course | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 of | fixed |
| 9 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 20 thing | punct |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 thing | cc |
| 11 | besides | beside | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 thing | nsubj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 sort | punct |
| 13 | what | what | DET | PronType=Int | 14 sort | det |
| 14 | sort | sort | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 besides | conj |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 companion | case |
| 16 | companion | companion | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 sort | nmod |
| 17 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 20 thing | aux |
| 18 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 thing | det |
| 19 | ugly | ugly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 thing | amod |
| 20 | thing | thing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 possible | conj |
| 21 | like | like | ADP | _ | 22 him | case |
| 22 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 thing | nmod |
| 23 | be | be | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 20 thing | xcomp |
| 24 | to | to | ADP | _ | 27 beings | case |
| 25 | those | that | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 27 beings | det |
| 26 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 beings | amod |
| 27 | beings | being | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 be | obl |
| 28 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 5 possible | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not is | past | that | possible property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | thing | could | besides and what sort of companion | like neck | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | be | infinitive | besides and what sort of companion not said here | to that beautiful beings | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | sort | companion | nom sort «cognition 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/pg3027/9/85/