The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 5

‘Yes,’ said Walter, ‘certainly I could; but, you see, Jonas, it might happen that one of them might bite me in the back, and I should have more trouble in killing them.

Who acts: Walter, you, it, one, I · What happens: say, see, happen, bite, have, kill · To what, where: Jonas, me, back, more trouble, them · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Walter, you, it, one), 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	_	5 said	punct
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	5 said	discourse
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 Yes	punct
4	’	'	PUNCT	_	2 Yes	punct
5	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	Walter	Walter	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 said	nsubj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 could	punct
8	‘	'	PUNCT	_	11 could	punct
9	certainly	certainly	ADV	_	11 could	advmod
10	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	11 could	nsubj
11	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 said	ccomp
12	;	;	PUNCT	_	16 see	punct
13	but	but	CCONJ	_	16 see	cc
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 but	punct
15	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	16 see	nsubj
16	see	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 said	conj
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 Jonas	punct
18	Jonas	Jonas	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 see	obl
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 happen	punct
20	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 happen	nsubj
21	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	22 happen	aux
22	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 see	conj
23	that	that	SCONJ	_	28 bite	mark
24	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	28 bite	nsubj
25	of	of	ADP	_	26 them	case
26	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 one	nmod
27	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	28 bite	aux
28	bite	bite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 happen	advcl
29	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	28 bite	obj
30	in	in	ADP	_	32 back	case
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 back	det
32	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 bite	obl
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 have	punct
34	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 have	cc
35	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	37 have	nsubj
36	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	37 have	aux
37	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 see	conj
38	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	39 trouble	amod
39	trouble	trouble	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 have	obj
40	in	in	SCONJ	_	41 killing	mark
41	killing	kill	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	37 have	advcl
42	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 killing	obj
43	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	Walter			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	see	present	you	Jonas		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	happen	might	it			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	bite	might	one of them	me	the back	vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent i=Patient in back=Location
5	have	should	I	more trouble		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trouble=Patient
6	kill	gerund	I not said here	them = they		vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

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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