The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 60
If, when I am busy, I ask him to go and feed the poultry, he is certain to give them some poisonous stuff instead of their proper food, and when I visit the yard next I find them all dead.
Who acts: I, husband · What happens: be, ask, go, feed, give, visit · To what, where: husband, poultry, poisonous stuff, stones, yard
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, husband), 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 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 6 busy | mark |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 busy | punct |
| 3 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 6 busy | mark |
| 4 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 6 busy | nsubj |
| 5 | am | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 busy | cop |
| 6 | busy | busy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 certain | advcl |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 ask | punct |
| 8 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 9 ask | nsubj |
| 9 | ask | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 busy | conj |
| 10 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 ask | obj |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 go | mark |
| 12 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 ask | xcomp |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 feed | cc |
| 14 | feed | feed | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 go | conj |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 poultry | det |
| 16 | poultry | poultry | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 feed | obj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 busy | punct |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 certain | nsubj |
| 19 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 20 certain | cop |
| 20 | certain | certain | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 21 | to | to | PART | _ | 22 give | mark |
| 22 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 20 certain | xcomp |
| 23 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 give | iobj |
| 24 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 26 stuff | det |
| 25 | poisonous | poisonous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 stuff | amod |
| 26 | stuff | stuff | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 give | obj |
| 27 | instead | instead | ADV | ExtPos=ADP | 31 food | case |
| 28 | of | of | ADP | _ | 27 instead | fixed |
| 29 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 31 food | nmod:poss |
| 30 | proper | proper | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 food | amod |
| 31 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 give | obl |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 find | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 find | cc |
| 34 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 36 visit | mark |
| 35 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 36 visit | nsubj |
| 36 | visit | visit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 41 find | advcl |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 yard | det |
| 38 | yard | yard | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 visit | obj |
| 39 | next | next | ADV | _ | 36 visit | advmod |
| 40 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 41 find | nsubj |
| 41 | find | find | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 20 certain | parataxis |
| 42 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 find | obj |
| 43 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 44 dead | det |
| 44 | dead | dead | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 find | obj |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 20 certain | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a condition, not said to happen | present | I | busy property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | ask speech: ask | present | I | husband | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 3 | go not said to happen | to-infinitive | I not said here | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | feed | infinitive | I not said here | the poultry | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poultry=Recipient | ||||
| 5 | is | present | husband | certain property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | give | to-infinitive | husband not said here | some poisonous stuff | stones = stone | instead stones's proper food | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient stuff=Theme | ||
| 7 | visit | present | I | the yard | next property | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent yard=Co-Agent | |||
| 8 | find | present | I | stones = stone | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent they=Theme dead=Attribute |
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/pg3282/29/60/