The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 2
When Christmas Eve came, the poor one had not a bite in the house, either of meat or bread; so he went to his brother, and begged him, in God’s name, to give him something for Christmas Day.
Who acts: Christmas, poor one, God · What happens: come, have, go, beg, give, name · To what, where: bite, house, Christmas, name, something
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Christmas, poor one, God), 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 | When | when | SCONJ | _ | 4 came | mark |
| 2 | Christmas | Christmas | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 came | nsubj |
| 3 | Eve | Eve | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Christmas | flat |
| 4 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 had | advcl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 came | punct |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 one | det |
| 7 | poor | poor | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 one | amod |
| 8 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 had | nsubj |
| 9 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 12 bite | advmod |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 bite | det |
| 12 | bite | bite | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 had | obj |
| 13 | in | in | ADP | _ | 15 house | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 house | det |
| 15 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 bite | nmod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 meat | punct |
| 17 | either | either | CCONJ | _ | 19 meat | cc:preconj |
| 18 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 meat | case |
| 19 | meat | meat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 had | conj |
| 20 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 21 bread | cc |
| 21 | bread | bread | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 meat | conj |
| 22 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 25 went | punct |
| 23 | so | so | ADV | _ | 25 went | advmod |
| 24 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 went | nsubj |
| 25 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 had | parataxis |
| 26 | to | to | ADP | _ | 28 brother | case |
| 27 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 brother | nmod:poss |
| 28 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 went | obl |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 begged | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 begged | cc |
| 31 | begged | beg | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 went | conj |
| 32 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 begged | obj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 name | punct |
| 34 | in | in | ADP | _ | 37 name | case |
| 35 | God | God | PROPN | Number=Sing | 37 name | nmod:poss |
| 36 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 35 God | case |
| 37 | name | name | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 begged | obl |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 give | punct |
| 39 | to | to | PART | _ | 40 give | mark |
| 40 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 begged | conj |
| 41 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 40 give | iobj |
| 42 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 40 give | obj |
| 43 | for | for | ADP | _ | 45 Day | case |
| 44 | Christmas | Christmas | PROPN | Number=Sing | 45 Day | compound |
| 45 | Day | Day | PROPN | Number=Sing | 40 give | obl |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 had | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past | Christmas | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | have | past | the poor one | a bite | the house | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bite=Patient | |||
| 3 | go | past | Christmas | to Christmas's brother | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to brother=Initial_Location | ||||
| 4 | beg speech: request | past | Christmas not said here | Christmas | God's name | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent he=Recipient | |||
| 5 | give | to-infinitive | Christmas not said here | something | Christmas | for Christmas Day | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent he=Recipient something=Theme for day=Asset | ||
| 6 | name | God | nom name «communication transitive»: 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 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/pg503/20/2/