The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 41
Near the rivers huge tortoises were to be found, and though to our eyes a tortoise seems a dull, slow thing, it is wonderful to think how clever they were, and how often they outwitted many of their livelier friends.
Who acts: tortoise, it · What happens: find, seem, be, think, outwit · To what, where: huge tortoises, rivers, dull slow thing, many · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tortoise, it), 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 | Near | near | ADP | _ | 3 rivers | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 rivers | det |
| 3 | rivers | river | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 found | obl |
| 4 | huge | huge | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 tortoises | amod |
| 5 | tortoises | tortoise | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 found | nsubj:pass |
| 6 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 found | aux:pass |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 found | mark |
| 8 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 9 found | aux:pass |
| 9 | found | find | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 seems | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 seems | cc |
| 12 | though | though | ADV | _ | 18 seems | advmod |
| 13 | to | to | ADP | _ | 15 eyes | case |
| 14 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 eyes | nmod:poss |
| 15 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 though | obl |
| 16 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 17 tortoise | det |
| 17 | tortoise | tortoise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 seems | nsubj |
| 18 | seems | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 found | ccomp |
| 19 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 thing | det |
| 20 | dull | dull | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 thing | amod |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 dull | punct |
| 22 | slow | slow | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 thing | amod |
| 23 | thing | thing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 seems | obj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 wonderful | punct |
| 25 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 wonderful | nsubj |
| 26 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 27 wonderful | cop |
| 27 | wonderful | wonderful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 seems | parataxis |
| 28 | to | to | PART | _ | 29 think | mark |
| 29 | think | think | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 27 wonderful | csubj |
| 30 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 31 clever | advmod |
| 31 | clever | clever | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 think | ccomp |
| 32 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 clever | nsubj |
| 33 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 clever | cop |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 outwitted | punct |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 outwitted | cc |
| 36 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 37 often | advmod |
| 37 | often | often | ADV | _ | 39 outwitted | advmod |
| 38 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 outwitted | nsubj |
| 39 | outwitted | outwit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 found | conj |
| 40 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 outwitted | obj |
| 41 | of | of | ADP | _ | 44 friends | case |
| 42 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 44 friends | nmod:poss |
| 43 | livelier | lively | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 44 friends | amod |
| 44 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 many | nmod |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 found | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | find | past · passive | huge tortoises | the rivers | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Attribute clause=Theme | ||||
| 2 | seem | present | a tortoise | a dull slow thing | though property | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme thing=Attribute | |||
| 3 | is | present | it | wonderful property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | think speech: other | to-infinitive | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 5 | is | past | Tortoise | clever property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | outwit | past | Tortoise | many of Tortoise's livelier friends | often property | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot many=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/pg3282/35/41/