The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 94

Stepping cautiously along the wood, the poor man contrived to lay hold of the animal’s tale, and with a desperate effort the mule managed to regain his footing on dry ground, but at the cost of leaving his tail in the poor man’s hand.

Who acts: poor man, mule, cost, animal · What happens: step, contrive, lay, manage, regain, leave · To what, where: wood, hold, cost, footing, dry ground, tail · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor man, mule, cost, animal), 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	Stepping	step	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 contrived	advcl
2	cautiously	cautiously	ADV	_	1 Stepping	advmod
3	along	along	ADP	_	5 wood	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 wood	det
5	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Stepping	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Stepping	punct
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 man	det
8	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 man	amod
9	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 contrived	nsubj
10	contrived	contrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	to	to	PART	_	12 lay	mark
12	lay	lay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 contrived	advcl
13	hold	hold	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 lay	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	18 tale	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 animal	det
16	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 tale	nmod:poss
17	’s	's	PART	_	16 animal	case
18	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 hold	nmod
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 managed	punct
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 managed	cc
21	with	with	ADP	_	24 effort	case
22	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	24 effort	det
23	desperate	desperate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 effort	amod
24	effort	effort	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 managed	obl
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 mule	det
26	mule	mule	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 managed	nsubj
27	managed	manage	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 contrived	conj
28	to	to	PART	_	29 regain	mark
29	regain	regain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	27 managed	xcomp
30	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	31 footing	nmod:poss
31	footing	footing	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 regain	obj
32	on	on	ADP	_	34 ground	case
33	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	34 ground	amod
34	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 regain	obl
35	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 cost	punct
36	but	but	CCONJ	_	39 cost	cc
37	at	at	ADP	_	39 cost	case
38	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	39 cost	det
39	cost	cost	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 managed	obl
40	of	of	SCONJ	_	41 leaving	mark
41	leaving	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	39 cost	acl
42	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	43 tail	nmod:poss
43	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 leaving	obj
44	in	in	ADP	_	49 hand	case
45	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	47 man	det
46	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 man	amod
47	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	49 hand	nmod:poss
48	’s	's	PART	_	47 man	case
49	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 leaving	obl
50	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 contrived	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	step	gerund	the poor man not said here		the wood	cautiously property	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along wood=Trajectory
2	contrive	past	the poor man				vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	lay	to-infinitive	the poor man not said here	hold of the animal's tale			vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Result
4	manage	past	the mule		the cost	with a desperate effort	vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
5	regain	to-infinitive	the mule not said here	mule's footing	dry ground		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent footing=Theme
6	leave	gerund	the cost not said here	mule's tail	the poor man's hand		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent tail=Theme in hand=Location
7	hold			the animal's tale			nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient
8	tell		the animal				nom tale «communication 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/pg3454/19/94/