The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 123
Thakane, in great surprise, asked the meaning of her distress; and the old woman told her that it was the custom in that country that all the girls who were born should be given to the ogre to eat.
Who acts: Thakane, old woman, meaning, mother · What happens: ask, tell, be, bear, give, eat · To what, where: meaning, mother, custom, country, girls, ogre · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Thakane, old woman, meaning, mother), 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 | Thakane | Thakane | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 asked | nsubj |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 surprise | punct |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 surprise | case |
| 4 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 surprise | amod |
| 5 | surprise | surprise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Thakane | appos |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Thakane | punct |
| 7 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 meaning | det |
| 9 | meaning | meaning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 asked | obj |
| 10 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 distress | case |
| 11 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 distress | nmod:poss |
| 12 | distress | distress | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 meaning | nmod |
| 13 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 18 told | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 told | cc |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 woman | det |
| 16 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 woman | amod |
| 17 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 told | nsubj |
| 18 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 asked | conj |
| 19 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 told | iobj |
| 20 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 24 custom | mark |
| 21 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 custom | nsubj |
| 22 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 custom | cop |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 custom | det |
| 24 | custom | custom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 told | ccomp |
| 25 | in | in | ADP | _ | 27 country | case |
| 26 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 27 country | det |
| 27 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 custom | nmod |
| 28 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 37 given | mark |
| 29 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 31 girls | det:predet |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 girls | det |
| 31 | girls | girl | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 given | nsubj:pass |
| 32 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 34 born | nsubj:pass |
| 33 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 born | aux:pass |
| 34 | born | bear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 31 girls | acl:relcl |
| 35 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 37 given | aux |
| 36 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 37 given | aux:pass |
| 37 | given | give | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 18 told | ccomp |
| 38 | to | to | ADP | _ | 40 ogre | case |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 ogre | det |
| 40 | ogre | ogre | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 given | obl |
| 41 | to | to | PART | _ | 42 eat | mark |
| 42 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 40 ogre | acl |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 asked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | Thakane | the meaning of mother's distress | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent meaning=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | past | the old woman | mother | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 3 | is a | past | meaning | the custom | that country | tree rules | |||
| 4 | bear | past · passive | all girls | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | |||||
| 5 | give | should · passive | all girls | the ogre | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Theme to ogre=Recipient | ||||
| 6 | eat | to-infinitive | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 7 | mean | mother's distress | nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 8 | distress | mother | nom distress «feeling 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/pg3282/15/123/