The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 85
The chief answered that he would not kill them, but only cast a spell over them, by which their heads and bodies should remain as they were, but their arms and legs should change into those of a bear, so that they would go on all fours for the rest of their lives.
Who acts: chief, heads, servants, arms · What happens: answer, not kill, cast, remain, be, change · To what, where: servants, spell, those, fours · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chief, heads, servants, arms), 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 | 2 chief | det |
| 2 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 answered | nsubj |
| 3 | answered | answer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 8 kill | mark |
| 5 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 kill | nsubj |
| 6 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 8 kill | aux |
| 7 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 8 kill | advmod |
| 8 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 answered | ccomp |
| 9 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 kill | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 cast | punct |
| 11 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 13 cast | cc |
| 12 | only | only | ADV | _ | 13 cast | advmod |
| 13 | cast | cast | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 answered | conj |
| 14 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 spell | det |
| 15 | spell | spell | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 cast | obj |
| 16 | over | over | ADP | _ | 17 them | case |
| 17 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 cast | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 remain | punct |
| 19 | by | by | ADP | _ | 20 which | case |
| 20 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 26 remain | obl |
| 21 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 heads | nmod:poss |
| 22 | heads | head | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 remain | nsubj |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 bodies | cc |
| 24 | bodies | body | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 heads | conj |
| 25 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 26 remain | aux |
| 26 | remain | remain | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 cast | conj |
| 27 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 29 were | mark |
| 28 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 were | nsubj |
| 29 | were | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 remain | advcl |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 change | punct |
| 31 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 37 change | cc |
| 32 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 33 arms | nmod:poss |
| 33 | arms | arm | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 change | nsubj |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 legs | cc |
| 35 | legs | leg | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 arms | conj |
| 36 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 37 change | aux |
| 37 | change | change | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 answered | parataxis |
| 38 | into | into | ADP | _ | 39 those | case |
| 39 | those | that | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 37 change | obl |
| 40 | of | of | ADP | _ | 42 bear | case |
| 41 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 42 bear | det |
| 42 | bear | bear | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 those | nmod |
| 43 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 48 go | punct |
| 44 | so | so | SCONJ | ExtPos=SCONJ | 48 go | mark |
| 45 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 44 so | fixed |
| 46 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 48 go | nsubj |
| 47 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 48 go | aux |
| 48 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 37 change | conj |
| 49 | on | on | ADP | _ | 51 fours | case |
| 50 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 51 fours | det |
| 51 | fours | four | NOUN | Number=Plur | 48 go | obl |
| 52 | for | for | ADP | _ | 54 rest | case |
| 53 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 54 rest | det |
| 54 | rest | rest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 48 go | obl |
| 55 | of | of | ADP | _ | 57 lives | case |
| 56 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 57 lives | nmod:poss |
| 57 | lives | life | NOUN | Number=Plur | 54 rest | nmod |
| 58 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 answered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | answer speech: assert | past | the chief | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | not kill | would | chief | servants = servant | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | ||||
| 3 | cast | infinitive | the chief not said here | a spell | over servants = servant | vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent spell=Theme over they=Destination | |||
| 4 | remain | should | servants's heads and bodies | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by which=Location | |||||
| 5 | be | past | servants = servant | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 6 | change | should | servants's arms and legs | into those result | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.result»: agent=Patient into that=Result | ||||
| 7 | go | would | servants = servant | all fours | for the rest of servants's lives | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent on four=Location for rest=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 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/pg3282/14/85/