The Blue Fairy Book, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, sentence 84

They whom he employed began to try it upon the princesses, then the duchesses and all the Court, but in vain; it was brought to the two sisters, who did all they possibly could to thrust their foot into the slipper, but they could not effect it.

Who acts: son, slippers, two sisters · What happens: employ, begin, try, bring, do, thrust · To what, where: foot, two sisters, all, slipper

This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, slippers, two sisters), 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	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 began	nsubj
2	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 employed	obj
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 employed	nsubj
4	employed	employ	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 They	acl:relcl
5	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 try	mark
7	try	try	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 began	xcomp
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 try	obj
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 princesses	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 princesses	det
11	princesses	princess	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 try	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 duchesses	punct
13	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	15 duchesses	advmod
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 duchesses	det
15	duchesses	duchess	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 princesses	conj
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 Court	cc
17	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	19 Court	det:predet
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 Court	det
19	Court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 princesses	conj
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 vain	punct
21	but	but	CCONJ	_	23 vain	cc
22	in	in	ADP	_	23 vain	case
23	vain	vain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 began	parataxis
24	;	;	PUNCT	_	27 brought	punct
25	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 brought	nsubj:pass
26	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	27 brought	aux:pass
27	brought	bring	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 began	parataxis
28	to	to	ADP	_	31 sisters	case
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 sisters	det
30	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	31 sisters	nummod
31	sisters	sister	NOUN	Number=Plur	27 brought	obl
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 did	punct
33	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	34 did	nsubj
34	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	31 sisters	acl:relcl
35	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	34 did	obj
36	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 thrust	nsubj
37	possibly	possibly	ADV	_	40 thrust	advmod
38	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	40 thrust	aux
39	to	to	PART	_	40 thrust	mark
40	thrust	thrust	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	35 all	acl:relcl
41	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 foot	nmod:poss
42	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 thrust	obj
43	into	into	ADP	_	45 slipper	case
44	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	45 slipper	det
45	slipper	slipper	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 thrust	obl
46	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 effect	punct
47	but	but	CCONJ	_	51 effect	cc
48	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	51 effect	nsubj
49	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	51 effect	aux
50	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	51 effect	advmod
51	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 brought	parataxis
52	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	51 effect	obj
53	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 began	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	employ	past	son					vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Theme
2	begin	past	slippers = slipper					vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	try	to-infinitive	slippers = slipper not said here	foot			upon the princesses and the duchesses and all Court	vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality
4	bring	past · passive		foot	the two sisters			vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to sister=Destination
5	do	past	the two sisters	all				vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent all=Eventuality
6	thrust	could	slippers = slipper	slippers's foot		the slipper	possibly property	vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Theme
7	not effect	could	slippers = slipper	foot				tree rules

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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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/pg503/11/84/