The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 49

Then he begged him, for God’s sake, to take the mill back again, and that in an instant, for, said he: “If it grind one hour more the whole district will be destroyed by herrings and pottage.”

Who acts: Mischief, instant, herrings · What happens: beg, take back, say, grind, destroy · To what, where: Man, mill, whole district · 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 (Mischief, instant, herrings), 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	Then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 begged	advmod
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 begged	nsubj
3	begged	beg	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 begged	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 sake	punct
6	for	for	ADP	_	9 sake	case
7	God	God	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 sake	nmod:poss
8	’s	's	PART	_	7 God	case
9	sake	sake	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 begged	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 take	punct
11	to	to	PART	_	12 take	mark
12	take	take	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	3 begged	parataxis
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 mill	det
14	mill	mill	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 take	obj
15	back	back	ADV	_	12 take	advmod
16	again	again	ADV	_	12 take	advmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 instant	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 instant	cc
19	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	22 instant	nsubj
20	in	in	ADP	_	22 instant	case
21	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 instant	det
22	instant	instant	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 begged	parataxis
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 said	punct
24	for	for	SCONJ	_	26 said	mark
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 for	punct
26	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 begged	parataxis
27	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 said	nsubj
28	:	:	PUNCT	_	32 grind	punct
29	“	"	PUNCT	_	32 grind	punct
30	If	if	SCONJ	_	32 grind	mark
31	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 grind	nsubj
32	grind	grind	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres Typo=Yes VerbForm=Fin	26 said	conj
33	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	34 hour	nummod
34	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 grind	obj
35	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	41 destroyed	advmod
36	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	38 district	det
37	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	38 district	amod
38	district	district	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 destroyed	nsubj:pass
39	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	41 destroyed	aux
40	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	41 destroyed	aux:pass
41	destroyed	destroy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	32 grind	advcl
42	by	by	ADP	_	43 herrings	case
43	herrings	herring	NOUN	Number=Plur	41 destroyed	obl
44	and	and	CCONJ	_	45 pottage	cc
45	pottage	pottage	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 herrings	conj
46	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 begged	punct
47	”	"	PUNCT	_	3 begged	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	beg speech: request	past	Mischief		Man	then	for God's sake	vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent he=Recipient for sake=Topic
2	take back	to-infinitive		the mill		again		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mill=Theme
3	say speech: assert	past	Mischief					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	grind a condition, not said to happen, in a quote	present	instant			hour		vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
5	destroy in a quote	future · passive	herrings and pottage	the whole district				vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

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/pg503/20/49/