The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 9

“Thou seest plainly that we are not able to keep our children, and I cannot see them starve to death before my face; I am resolved to lose them in the wood to-morrow, which may very easily be done; for, while they are busy in tying up fagots, we may run away, and leave them, without their taking any notice.”

Who acts: Thou, we, scarce, children · What happens: see, not be, keep, not see, starve, resolve · To what, where: children, scarce, wood, morrow, fagots, notice

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 (Thou, we, scarce, children), 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	_	3 seest	punct
2	Thou	thou	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=2 PronType=Prs Style=Arch	3 seest	nsubj
3	seest	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Style=Arch Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	plainly	plainly	ADV	_	3 seest	advmod
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 able	mark
6	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	9 able	nsubj
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 able	cop
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 able	advmod
9	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 seest	advcl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 keep	mark
11	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 able	xcomp
12	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 children	nmod:poss
13	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 keep	obj
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 see	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 see	cc
16	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	19 see	nsubj
17	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	19 see	aux
18	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	19 see	advmod
19	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 keep	conj
20	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 see	obj
21	starve	starve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 see	xcomp
22	to	to	ADP	_	23 death	case
23	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 starve	obl
24	before	before	ADP	_	26 face	case
25	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	26 face	nmod:poss
26	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 starve	obl
27	;	;	PUNCT	_	30 resolved	punct
28	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	30 resolved	nsubj
29	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	30 resolved	aux:pass
30	resolved	resolve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 seest	conj
31	to	to	PART	_	32 lose	mark
32	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 resolved	xcomp
33	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 lose	obj
34	in	in	ADP	_	36 wood	case
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 wood	det
36	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 lose	obl
37	to	to	ADP	_	39 morrow	case
38	-	-	PUNCT	_	37 to	punct
39	morrow	morrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 lose	obl
40	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 done	punct
41	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	46 done	obj
42	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	46 done	aux
43	very	very	ADV	_	44 easily	advmod
44	easily	easily	ADV	_	46 done	advmod
45	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	46 done	aux:pass
46	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	39 morrow	acl:relcl
47	;	;	PUNCT	_	53 busy	punct
48	for	for	SCONJ	_	53 busy	mark
49	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 busy	punct
50	while	while	SCONJ	_	53 busy	mark
51	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 busy	nsubj
52	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	53 busy	cop
53	busy	busy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 seest	parataxis
54	in	in	SCONJ	_	55 tying	mark
55	tying	tie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	53 busy	advcl
56	up	up	ADP	_	55 tying	compound:prt
57	fagots	fagot	NOUN	Number=Plur	55 tying	obj
58	,	,	PUNCT	_	61 run	punct
59	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	61 run	nsubj
60	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	61 run	aux
61	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	53 busy	parataxis
62	away	away	ADV	_	61 run	advmod
63	,	,	PUNCT	_	65 leave	punct
64	and	and	CCONJ	_	65 leave	cc
65	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	61 run	conj
66	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	65 leave	obj
67	,	,	PUNCT	_	70 taking	punct
68	without	without	SCONJ	_	70 taking	mark
69	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	70 taking	nsubj
70	taking	take	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	65 leave	advcl
71	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	72 notice	det
72	notice	notice	NOUN	Number=Sing	70 taking	obj
73	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 seest	punct
74	”	"	PUNCT	_	3 seest	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see in a quote	present	Thou				plainly property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	not is in a quote	present	we				able property	tree rules
3	keep in a quote	to-infinitive	we not said here	our children				vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Theme
4	not see in a quote	can	scarce	children = child				tree rules
5	starve in a quote	infinitive	children = child not said here			before my face	to death	tree rules
6	resolve in a quote	present · passive		scarce				tree rules
7	lose in a quote	to-infinitive		children = child	the wood		to morrow	vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality
8	do in a quote	may · passive		morrow			easily property	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: which=Eventuality
9	is in a quote	present	children = child				busy property	tree rules
10	tie up in a quote	gerund	children = child not said here	fagots				vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fagot=Patient
11	run away in a quote	may	we				away property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
12	leave in a quote	infinitive	we not said here	children = child				vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme
13	take in a quote	gerund	children = child	any notice				vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent notice=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/pg503/33/9/