The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 32
“On Christmas Eve he was so poor that he came to me and begged for a trifle, for God’s sake, and now he gives a feast as if he were both a count and a king!” thought he.
Who acts: Man · What happens: be, come, beg, give, think · To what, where: Christmas Eve, me, feast, count, Man · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (Man), 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 | _ | 8 poor | punct |
| 2 | On | on | ADP | _ | 4 Eve | case |
| 3 | Christmas | Christmas | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 Eve | compound |
| 4 | Eve | Eve | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 poor | obl |
| 5 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 poor | nsubj |
| 6 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 poor | cop |
| 7 | so | so | ADV | _ | 8 poor | advmod |
| 8 | poor | poor | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 9 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 11 came | mark |
| 10 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 came | nsubj |
| 11 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 poor | advcl |
| 12 | to | to | ADP | _ | 13 me | case |
| 13 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 11 came | obl |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 begged | cc |
| 15 | begged | beg | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 came | conj |
| 16 | for | for | ADP | _ | 18 trifle | case |
| 17 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 18 trifle | det |
| 18 | trifle | trifle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 begged | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 sake | punct |
| 20 | for | for | ADP | _ | 23 sake | case |
| 21 | God | God | PROPN | Number=Sing | 23 sake | nmod:poss |
| 22 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 21 God | case |
| 23 | sake | sake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 begged | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 gives | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 gives | cc |
| 26 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 28 gives | advmod |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 gives | nsubj |
| 28 | gives | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 43 thought | advcl |
| 29 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 30 feast | det |
| 30 | feast | feast | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 gives | obj |
| 31 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 37 count | mark |
| 32 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 37 count | mark |
| 33 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 count | nsubj |
| 34 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 count | cop |
| 35 | both | both | CCONJ | _ | 37 count | cc:preconj |
| 36 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 count | det |
| 37 | count | count | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 thought | nsubj |
| 38 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 king | cc |
| 39 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 40 king | det |
| 40 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 count | conj |
| 41 | ! | ! | PUNCT | _ | 40 king | punct |
| 42 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 40 king | punct |
| 43 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 poor | advcl |
| 44 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 thought | obj |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 poor | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is in a quote | past | Man | Christmas Eve | poor property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | come in a quote | past | Man | me | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to i=Initial_Location | ||||
| 3 | beg speech: request in a quote | participle | Man not said here | for a trifle; for God's sake | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for trifle=Topic | ||||
| 4 | give in a quote | present | Man | a feast | now | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feast=Theme | |||
| 5 | is a a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | past | Man | a count and a king | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | think speech: other | past | Man | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot he=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 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/pg503/20/32/