The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 80

The poor children fell upon their knees, and begged his pardon; but they had to do with one of the most cruel ogres in the world, who, far from having any pity on them, had already devoured them with his eyes, and told his wife they would be delicate eating when tossed up with good savory sauce.

Who acts: poor children, children, cruel ogres, ogre · What happens: fall, beg, have, do, devour, tell · To what, where: knees, pardon, pity, children, wife · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor children, children, cruel ogres, ogre), 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	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 children	det
2	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 children	amod
3	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fell	nsubj
4	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 knees	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 knees	nmod:poss
7	knees	knee	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fell	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 begged	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 begged	cc
10	begged	beg	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fell	conj
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 pardon	nmod:poss
12	pardon	pardon	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 begged	obj
13	;	;	PUNCT	_	16 had	punct
14	but	but	CCONJ	_	16 had	cc
15	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 had	nsubj
16	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fell	parataxis
17	to	to	PART	_	18 do	mark
18	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 had	xcomp
19	with	with	ADP	_	20 one	case
20	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	18 do	obl
21	of	of	ADP	_	25 ogres	case
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 ogres	det
23	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	24 cruel	advmod
24	cruel	cruel	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 ogres	amod
25	ogres	ogre	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 one	nmod
26	in	in	ADP	_	28 world	case
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 world	det
28	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 ogres	nmod
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 having	punct
30	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	34 having	nsubj
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 having	punct
32	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	34 having	advmod
33	from	from	SCONJ	_	34 having	mark
34	having	have	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	25 ogres	acl
35	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	36 pity	det
36	pity	pity	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 having	obj
37	on	on	ADP	_	38 them	case
38	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	34 having	obl
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	42 devoured	punct
40	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	42 devoured	aux
41	already	already	ADV	_	42 devoured	advmod
42	devoured	devour	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	16 had	conj
43	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	42 devoured	obj
44	with	with	ADP	_	46 eyes	case
45	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	46 eyes	nmod:poss
46	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	42 devoured	obl
47	,	,	PUNCT	_	49 told	punct
48	and	and	CCONJ	_	49 told	cc
49	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fell	conj
50	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	51 wife	nmod:poss
51	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	49 told	iobj
52	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	55 delicate	nsubj
53	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	55 delicate	aux
54	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	55 delicate	cop
55	delicate	delicate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	49 told	ccomp
56	eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	55 delicate	advcl
57	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	58 tossed	advmod
58	tossed	toss	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	56 eating	advcl
59	up	up	ADP	_	58 tossed	compound:prt
60	with	with	ADP	_	63 sauce	case
61	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	63 sauce	amod
62	savory	savory	NOUN	Number=Sing	63 sauce	compound
63	sauce	sauce	NOUN	Number=Sing	58 tossed	obl
64	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 fell	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	fall	past	the poor children			children's knees		vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon knee=Location
2	beg speech: request	past	the poor children not said here	ogre's pardon				vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent pardon=Recipient
3	have	past	children = child					tree rules
4	do	to-infinitive	children = child not said here				with one of the cruel ogres in the world	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	have	gerund	the cruel ogres in the world	any pity			on children = child; far property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pity=Patient
6	devour	past · perfect	children = child not said here	children = child			with ogre's eyes	vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient
7	tell speech: assert	past	the poor children not said here		ogre's wife			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient
8	is	would	children = child				delicate property	tree rules
9	eat	gerund	children = child not said here					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
10	toss up	participle	children = child not said here				with good savory sauce	vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent with sauce=Material
11	pardon		ogre					nom pardon «act 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.

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