The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 1

‘In shape he is a man, but in stature he is a giant,’ replied the earl, ‘and it were better by far that he should slay my sons than that I should give up my daughter.’

Who acts: he, man, I · What happens: be, reply, slay, give up · To what, where: man, shape, stature, earl, sons, daughter

This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (he, man, 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	‘	'	PUNCT	_	7 man	punct
2	In	in	ADP	_	3 shape	case
3	shape	shape	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 man	obl
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 man	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 man	cop
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 man	det
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 replied	nsubj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 giant	punct
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	15 giant	cc
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 stature	case
11	stature	stature	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 giant	obl
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 giant	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 giant	cop
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 giant	det
15	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 man	conj
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 man	punct
17	’	'	PUNCT	_	7 man	punct
18	replied	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 earl	det
20	earl	earl	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 replied	obj
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 better	punct
22	‘	‘	PUNCT	_	26 better	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 better	cc
24	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 better	expl
25	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 better	cop
26	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	18 replied	parataxis
27	by	by	ADP	_	28 far	case
28	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	26 better	obl
29	that	that	SCONJ	_	32 slay	mark
30	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 slay	nsubj
31	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	32 slay	aux
32	slay	slay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 better	advcl
33	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	34 sons	nmod:poss
34	sons	son	NOUN	Number=Plur	32 slay	obj
35	than	than	ADP	_	36 that	case
36	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	32 slay	obl
37	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	39 give	nsubj
38	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	39 give	aux
39	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	32 slay	parataxis
40	up	up	ADP	_	39 give	compound:prt
41	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 daughter	nmod:poss
42	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 give	obj
43	.	.	PUNCT	_	18 replied	punct
44	’	'	PUNCT	_	18 replied	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	present	he	a man	shape		tree rules
2	is	present	man		stature	giant property	tree rules
3	reply speech: assert	past	a man	the earl			vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent earl=Topic
4	is	past				good property	tree rules
5	slay	should	man	my sons		than that	vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient
6	give up	should	I	my daughter			vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Source

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/pg3454/32/1/