The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 1

Never again did the swans become men; but they are still different from other swans, for in the night-time those who listen can hear them talk in a language that is certainly not swan’s language; and there are even sounds of laughing and talking, unlike any noise made by the swans whom we know.

Who acts: swans, night time, language, sounds, we · What happens: not do, become, be, listen, hear, talk · To what, where: men, other swans, swans, language, sounds, noise

This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (swans, night time, language, sounds), 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	Never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	3 did	advmod
2	again	again	ADV	_	3 did	advmod
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 swans	det
5	swans	swan	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 become	nsubj
6	become	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
7	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 become	xcomp
8	;	;	PUNCT	_	13 different	punct
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	13 different	cc
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 different	nsubj
11	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 different	cop
12	still	still	ADV	_	13 different	advmod
13	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 did	conj
14	from	from	ADP	_	16 swans	case
15	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 swans	amod
16	swans	swan	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 different	obl
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 time	punct
18	for	for	ADP	_	23 time	case
19	in	in	ADP	_	23 time	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 time	det
21	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 time	compound
22	-	-	PUNCT	_	21 night	punct
23	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obl:unmarked
24	those	that	PRON	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	28 hear	nsubj
25	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	26 listen	nsubj
26	listen	listen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	24 those	acl:relcl
27	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	28 hear	aux
28	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 time	acl:relcl
29	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	28 hear	obj
30	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	28 hear	xcomp
31	in	in	ADP	_	33 language	case
32	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	33 language	det
33	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 talk	obl
34	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	40 language	nsubj
35	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	40 language	cop
36	certainly	certainly	ADV	_	40 language	advmod
37	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	40 language	advmod
38	swan	swan	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 language	nmod:poss
39	’s	's	PART	_	38 swan	case
40	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 language	acl:relcl
41	;	;	PUNCT	_	46 sounds	punct
42	and	and	CCONJ	_	44 are	cc
43	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	44 are	expl
44	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	46 sounds	cop
45	even	even	ADV	_	46 sounds	advmod
46	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 did	parataxis
47	of	of	SCONJ	_	48 laughing	mark
48	laughing	laugh	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	46 sounds	acl
49	and	and	CCONJ	_	50 talking	cc
50	talking	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	48 laughing	conj
51	,	,	PUNCT	_	54 noise	punct
52	unlike	unlike	ADP	_	54 noise	case
53	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	54 noise	det
54	noise	noise	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 sounds	conj
55	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	54 noise	acl
56	by	by	ADP	_	58 swans	case
57	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	58 swans	det
58	swans	swan	NOUN	Number=Plur	55 made	obl
59	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	61 know	obj
60	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	61 know	nsubj
61	know	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	58 swans	acl:relcl
62	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not do	past				again; time		tree rules
2	become	present	the swans	men				vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
3	is	present	swans = swan		other swans	still	different property	tree rules
4	listen	present						vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent
5	hear	can	the night time	swans = swan				tree rules
6	talk	infinitive	swans = swan not said here		a language			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	not is a	present	a language	swan's language			certainly property	tree rules
8	is a	present		sounds and any noise				tree rules
9	laugh	gerund	sounds and any noise not said here					vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
10	talk	gerund	sounds and any noise not said here					vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
11	make	participle		any noise not said here			by the swans	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
12	know	present	we	the swans				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer whom=Stimulus

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/pg3282/9/1/