The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 169

When he had read it the governor was certainly a little astonished; but he was told in the letter to “ask no questions,” and he knew how to obey orders.

Who acts: Nur, governor · What happens: read, be, tell, ask, know, obey · To what, where: letter, Nur, questions, orders · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nur, governor), 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	When	when	SCONJ	_	4 read	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 read	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 read	aux
4	read	read	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	12 astonished	advcl
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 read	obj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 governor	det
7	governor	governor	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 astonished	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 astonished	cop
9	certainly	certainly	ADV	_	12 astonished	advmod
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 little	det
11	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 astonished	obl:unmarked
12	astonished	astonished	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
13	;	;	PUNCT	_	17 told	punct
14	but	but	CCONJ	_	17 told	cc
15	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 told	nsubj
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 told	aux:pass
17	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 astonished	parataxis
18	in	in	ADP	_	20 letter	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 letter	det
20	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 told	obl
21	to	to	ADP	_	23 ask	case
22	“	"	PUNCT	_	23 ask	punct
23	ask	ask	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	17 told	parataxis
24	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	25 questions	det
25	questions	question	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 ask	obj
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 ask	punct
27	”	"	PUNCT	_	23 ask	punct
28	and	and	CCONJ	_	30 knew	cc
29	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 knew	nsubj
30	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 told	conj
31	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	33 obey	advmod
32	to	to	PART	_	33 obey	mark
33	obey	obey	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 knew	xcomp
34	orders	order	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 obey	obj
35	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 astonished	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	read	past · perfect	Nur	letter			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic
2	is	past	the governor			a little obl:unmarked; astonished, certainly property	tree rules
3	tell speech: assert	past · passive		Nur	the letter		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
4	ask speech: ask in a quote	infinitive		no questions			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient
5	know	past	Nur				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
6	obey	to-infinitive	Nur not said here	orders			vn abide_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent order=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.

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