The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 10

Sometimes they are more definite and inquire ‘What are you writing now?’ as if I must be writing something--which, indeed, is the case, though I dislike being reminded of it.

Who acts: ladies, you, I · What happens: be, inquire, write, dislike, remind · To what, where: something, case

This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ladies, you, I), 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	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	5 definite	advmod
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 definite	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 definite	cop
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 definite	advmod
5	definite	definite	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 inquire	cc
7	inquire	inquire	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 definite	conj
8	‘	'	PUNCT	_	12 writing	punct
9	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	12 writing	obj
10	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 writing	aux
11	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	12 writing	nsubj
12	writing	write	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 inquire	conj
13	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	12 writing	advmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 writing	punct
15	’	'	PUNCT	_	12 writing	punct
16	as	as	SCONJ	_	21 writing	mark
17	if	if	SCONJ	_	21 writing	mark
18	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	21 writing	nsubj
19	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	21 writing	aux
20	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	21 writing	aux
21	writing	write	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 inquire	advcl
22	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	21 writing	obj
23	--	--	PUNCT	_	30 case	punct
24	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	30 case	nsubj
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 which	punct
26	indeed	indeed	ADV	_	30 case	advmod
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 indeed	punct
28	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	30 case	cop
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 case	det
30	case	case	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 something	nmod
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 dislike	punct
32	though	though	SCONJ	_	34 dislike	mark
33	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	34 dislike	nsubj
34	dislike	dislike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 inquire	advcl
35	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	36 reminded	aux:pass
36	reminded	remind	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	34 dislike	advcl
37	of	of	ADP	_	38 it	case
38	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 reminded	obl
39	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 definite	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	ladies = lady			definite, sometimes property	tree rules
2	inquire speech: other	infinitive	ladies = lady not said here				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	write	present · progressive	you		now		vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme
4	write	must · progressive	I	something			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Theme
5	is a	present		the case		indeed property	tree rules
6	dislike	present	I				vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Experiencer
7	remind speech: other	gerund · passive	I not said here			of present	vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient PP.topic»: of it=Topic

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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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