Old Indian Legends, The Tree-bound, sentence 17
In vain tried the chieftain of the tribe to find among his warriors a powerful marksman who could send a death arrow to the man-hungry bird.
Who acts: powerful marksman · What happens: try, find, send · To what, where: chieftain, vain, death arrow, hungry bird
This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Tree-bound. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (powerful marksman), 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 | In | in | ADP | _ | 2 vain | case |
| 2 | vain | vain | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 tried | obl |
| 3 | tried | try | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 chieftain | det |
| 5 | chieftain | chieftain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 tried | obj |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 tribe | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 tribe | det |
| 8 | tribe | tribe | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 chieftain | nmod |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 find | mark |
| 10 | find | find | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 chieftain | acl |
| 11 | among | among | ADP | _ | 13 warriors | case |
| 12 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 warriors | nmod:poss |
| 13 | warriors | warrior | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 find | obl |
| 14 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 marksman | det |
| 15 | powerful | powerful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 marksman | amod |
| 16 | marksman | marksman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 warriors | appos |
| 17 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 19 send | nsubj |
| 18 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 19 send | aux |
| 19 | send | send | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 marksman | acl:relcl |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 22 arrow | det |
| 21 | death | death | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 arrow | compound |
| 22 | arrow | arrow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 send | obj |
| 23 | to | to | ADP | _ | 28 bird | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 bird | det |
| 25 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 hungry | compound |
| 26 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 25 man | punct |
| 27 | hungry | hungry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 bird | amod |
| 28 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 send | obl |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 tried | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | try | past | the chieftain of the tribe | vain | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chieftain=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | find | to-infinitive | the chieftain of the tribe not said here | among eagle's warriors | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | send | could | a powerful marksman | a death arrow | the hungry bird | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent arrow=Theme to bird=Destination |
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: «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Project Gutenberg book 338 (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/pg338/8/17/