The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter I, sentence 37
I answered in few words, but in the most submissive manner; and, being almost famished with hunger, I could not help showing my impatience by putting my finger frequently to my mouth, to signify that I wanted food.
Who acts: I · What happens: answer, famish, not help, show, put, signify · To what, where: few words, impatience, finger, food
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 2 answered | nsubj |
| 2 | answered | answer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 words | case |
| 4 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 words | amod |
| 5 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 answered | obl |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 manner | punct |
| 7 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 12 manner | cc |
| 8 | in | in | ADP | _ | 12 manner | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 manner | det |
| 10 | most | most | ADV | Degree=Sup | 11 submissive | advmod |
| 11 | submissive | submissive | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 manner | amod |
| 12 | manner | manner | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 answered | parataxis |
| 13 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 18 famished | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 famished | cc |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 and | punct |
| 16 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 18 famished | aux:pass |
| 17 | almost | almost | ADV | _ | 18 famished | advmod |
| 18 | famished | famish | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 answered | parataxis |
| 19 | with | with | ADP | _ | 20 hunger | case |
| 20 | hunger | hunger | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 famished | obl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 help | punct |
| 22 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 25 help | nsubj |
| 23 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 25 help | aux |
| 24 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 25 help | advmod |
| 25 | help | help | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 famished | parataxis |
| 26 | showing | show | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 25 help | xcomp |
| 27 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 impatience | nmod:poss |
| 28 | impatience | impatience | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 showing | obj |
| 29 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 30 putting | mark |
| 30 | putting | put | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 26 showing | advcl |
| 31 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 finger | nmod:poss |
| 32 | finger | finger | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 putting | obj |
| 33 | frequently | frequently | ADV | _ | 30 putting | advmod |
| 34 | to | to | ADP | _ | 36 mouth | case |
| 35 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 36 mouth | nmod:poss |
| 36 | mouth | mouth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 putting | obl |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 signify | punct |
| 38 | to | to | PART | _ | 39 signify | mark |
| 39 | signify | signify | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 help | conj |
| 40 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 42 wanted | mark |
| 41 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 42 wanted | nsubj |
| 42 | wanted | want | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 39 signify | advcl |
| 43 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 wanted | obj |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 answered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | answer speech: assert | past | I | few words | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | famish | gerund · passive | with hunger; almost property | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | not help | could | I | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 4 | show not said to happen | gerund | I not said here | my impatience | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent impatience=Recipient | ||||
| 5 | put | gerund | I not said here | my finger | to my mouth; frequently property | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent finger=Goal | |||
| 6 | signify | to-infinitive | I not said here | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot | |||||
| 7 | want | past | I | food | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot food=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/pg503/43/37/