The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter I, sentence 71
The better to behold him, I lay down on my side, so that my face was level with his, and he stood three yards off.
Who acts: I, face, Emperor · What happens: behold, lay down, be, stand off · To what, where: Emperor, side
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, face, Emperor), 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 better | det |
| 2 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | PART | _ | 4 behold | mark |
| 4 | behold | behold | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 better | advcl |
| 5 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 behold | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 lay | punct |
| 7 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 8 lay | nsubj |
| 8 | lay | lay | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 better | conj |
| 9 | down | down | ADV | _ | 8 lay | advmod |
| 10 | on | on | ADP | _ | 12 side | case |
| 11 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 side | nmod:poss |
| 12 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 lay | obl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 level | punct |
| 14 | so | so | SCONJ | _ | 19 level | case |
| 15 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 14 so | fixed |
| 16 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 face | nmod:poss |
| 17 | face | face | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 level | nsubj |
| 18 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 level | cop |
| 19 | level | level | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 lay | parataxis |
| 20 | with | with | ADP | _ | 21 his | case |
| 21 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 level | conj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 stood | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 stood | cc |
| 24 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 stood | nsubj |
| 25 | stood | stand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 level | conj |
| 26 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 27 yards | nsubj |
| 27 | yards | yards | PRON | Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 stood | ccomp |
| 28 | off | off | ADP | _ | 25 stood | compound:prt |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 better | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | behold | to-infinitive | Emperor | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus | |||||
| 2 | lay down | present | I | my side | down property | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on side=Destination | |||
| 3 | is | past | my face | so level | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | stand off | past | Emperor | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/43/71/