The Blue Fairy Book, The Forty Thieves, sentence 129

The merchant refused, saying that he had a reason; and, on Ali Baba’s asking him what that was, he replied: “It is, sir, that I can eat no victuals that have any salt in them.”

Who acts: merchant, Ali Baba, that, Baba, reason, victuals · What happens: refuse, say, have, ask, be, reply · To what, where: reason, merchant, sir, victuals, salt · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant, Ali Baba, that, Baba), 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	2 merchant	det
2	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 refused	nsubj
3	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 saying	punct
5	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 refused	advcl
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 had	mark
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 had	nsubj
8	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 saying	ccomp
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 reason	det
10	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 had	obj
11	;	;	PUNCT	_	25 replied	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 replied	cc
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 and	punct
14	on	on	SCONJ	_	18 asking	mark
15	Ali	Ali	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 Baba	compound
16	Baba	Baba	PROPN	Number=Sing	18 asking	nsubj
17	’s	's	PART	_	16 Baba	case
18	asking	ask	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	25 replied	advcl
19	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 asking	obj
20	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	18 asking	ccomp
21	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	20 what	nsubj
22	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 what	cop
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 asking	punct
24	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 replied	nsubj
25	replied	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 refused	parataxis
26	:	:	PUNCT	_	31 sir	punct
27	“	"	PUNCT	_	31 sir	punct
28	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 sir	nsubj
29	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	31 sir	cop
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 is	punct
31	sir	sir	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 replied	ccomp
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 eat	punct
33	that	that	SCONJ	_	36 eat	mark
34	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	36 eat	nsubj
35	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	36 eat	aux
36	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	31 sir	parataxis
37	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	38 victuals	det
38	victuals	victual	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 eat	obj
39	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	40 have	nsubj
40	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	38 victuals	acl:relcl
41	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	42 salt	det
42	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 have	obj
43	in	in	ADP	_	44 them	case
44	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 have	obl
45	.	.	PUNCT	_	36 eat	punct
46	”	"	PUNCT	_	36 eat	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	refuse	past	the merchant				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	say speech: assert	gerund	the merchant not said here				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	have	past	merchant	a reason			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Patient
4	ask speech: ask	gerund	Ali Baba		merchant		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient
5	is a	past	that				tree rules
6	reply speech: assert	past	Baba				vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	is a in a quote	present	reason	sir			tree rules
8	eat in a quote	can	Baba	no victuals			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent victual=Patient
9	have in a quote	present	no victuals	any salt		in victuals = victual	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent salt=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/pg503/34/129/