The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 37
While they were absent the little girl kept house alone, for her brother always got up before the dawn, when the air was fresh and cool, and drove out the cattle to the sweetest patches of grass he could find.
Who acts: fields, little girl, brother, air, cattle · What happens: be, keep, get up, drive out, find · To what, where: house, cattle, sweetest patches, grass
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 (fields, little girl, brother, air), 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 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 4 absent | mark |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 absent | nsubj |
| 3 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 absent | cop |
| 4 | absent | absent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 girl | det |
| 6 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 girl | amod |
| 7 | girl | girl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 absent | nsubj |
| 8 | kept | keep | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 7 girl | acl |
| 9 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 kept | obj |
| 10 | alone | alone | ADV | _ | 8 kept | advmod |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 got | punct |
| 12 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 16 got | mark |
| 13 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 brother | nmod:poss |
| 14 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 got | nsubj |
| 15 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 16 got | advmod |
| 16 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 absent | parataxis |
| 17 | up | up | ADP | _ | 16 got | compound:prt |
| 18 | before | before | ADP | _ | 20 dawn | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 dawn | det |
| 20 | dawn | dawn | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 got | obl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 fresh | punct |
| 22 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 26 fresh | advmod |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 air | det |
| 24 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 fresh | nsubj |
| 25 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 fresh | cop |
| 26 | fresh | fresh | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 got | conj |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 cool | cc |
| 28 | cool | cool | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 fresh | conj |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 drove | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 drove | cc |
| 31 | drove | drive | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 got | conj |
| 32 | out | out | ADP | _ | 31 drove | compound:prt |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 cattle | det |
| 34 | cattle | cattle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 drove | obj |
| 35 | to | to | ADP | _ | 38 patches | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 patches | det |
| 37 | sweetest | sweet | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 38 patches | amod |
| 38 | patches | patch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 31 drove | obl |
| 39 | of | of | ADP | _ | 40 grass | case |
| 40 | grass | grass | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 patches | nmod |
| 41 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 find | nsubj |
| 42 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 43 find | aux |
| 43 | find | find | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 40 grass | acl:relcl |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 absent | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | fields = field | absent property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | keep | participle | the little girl not said here | house | alone property | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme | |||
| 3 | get up | past | girl's brother | dawn | always property | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | |||
| 4 | is | past | the air | fresh property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | be | the air not said here | tree rules | ||||||
| 6 | drive out | past | girl's brother not said here | the cattle | the sweetest patches of grass | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent cattle=Theme to patch=Trajectory | |||
| 7 | find | could | cattle | grass not said here | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grass=Topic |
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/pg3282/15/37/