The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 62
But if a suitor cannot answer my question I cut off his head and hang it on the battlements of the citadel.’
Who acts: suitor, I, my · What happens: not answer, cut off, hang, question · To what, where: question, head, battlements
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (suitor, I, my), 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 | _ | 11 cut | cc |
| 2 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 7 answer | mark |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 suitor | det |
| 4 | suitor | suitor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 answer | nsubj |
| 5 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 answer | aux |
| 6 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 7 answer | advmod |
| 7 | answer | answer | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 cut | advcl |
| 8 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 9 question | nmod:poss |
| 9 | question | question | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 answer | obj |
| 10 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 11 cut | nsubj |
| 11 | cut | cut | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | off | off | ADP | _ | 11 cut | compound:prt |
| 13 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 head | nmod:poss |
| 14 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 cut | obj |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 hang | cc |
| 16 | hang | hang | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 11 cut | conj |
| 17 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 hang | obj |
| 18 | on | on | ADP | _ | 20 battlements | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 battlements | det |
| 20 | battlements | battlement | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 hang | obl |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 citadel | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 citadel | det |
| 23 | citadel | citadel | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 battlements | nmod |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 cut | punct |
| 25 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 11 cut | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not answer speech: assert a condition, not said to happen | can | a suitor | my question | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent question=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | cut off | past | I | suitor's head | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | hang | infinitive | I not said here | Head | the battlements of the citadel | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme on battlement=Destination | |||
| 4 | question | my | nom question «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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/pg3282/1/62/