The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 8

The only weapon he carried was his staff, and to help him to keep his balance on horseback he had tied to each of his ankles a big stone that nearly touched the ground as he sat astride the little pony.

Who acts: only weapon, weapon, horseback · What happens: carry, be, help, keep, tie, touch · To what, where: staff, weapon, balance, horseback, big stone

This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (only weapon, weapon, horseback), 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	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 weapon	det
2	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 weapon	amod
3	weapon	weapon	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 carried	nsubj
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 carried	nsubj
5	carried	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 staff	cop
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 staff	nmod:poss
8	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 carried	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 help	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 help	cc
11	to	to	PART	_	12 help	mark
12	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 carried	advcl
13	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 help	obj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 keep	mark
15	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 help	xcomp
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 balance	nmod:poss
17	balance	balance	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 keep	obj
18	on	on	ADP	_	19 horseback	case
19	horseback	horseback	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 keep	obl
20	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 tied	nsubj:pass
21	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 tied	aux
22	tied	tie	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	19 horseback	acl:relcl
23	to	to	ADP	_	24 each	case
24	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	22 tied	obl
25	of	of	ADP	_	27 ankles	case
26	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	27 ankles	nmod:poss
27	ankles	ankle	NOUN	Number=Plur	24 each	nmod
28	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	30 stone	det
29	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 stone	amod
30	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 ankles	appos
31	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	33 touched	obj
32	nearly	nearly	ADV	_	33 touched	advmod
33	touched	touch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 stone	acl:relcl
34	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	35 ground	det
35	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 touched	obj
36	as	as	SCONJ	_	38 sat	mark
37	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 sat	nsubj
38	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 touched	advcl
39	astride	astride	ADP	_	42 pony	case
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 pony	det
41	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	42 pony	amod
42	pony	pony	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 sat	obl
43	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 carried	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	carry	past	the only weapon				vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past		weapon's staff			tree rules
3	help	to-infinitive	the only weapon not said here	weapon			vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary clause=Theme
4	keep	to-infinitive	weapon not said here	weapon's balance	horseback		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent balance=Theme on horseback=Location
5	tie	past · perfect · passive	horseback not said here	weapon		to each	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient to each=Co-Patient
6	touch	past		a big stone		nearly property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus that=Experiencer ground=Result
7	sit	past	weapon			astride the little pony	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent astride pony=Location
8	balance		weapon				nom balance «state intransitive»: poss=agent

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/8/