The Blue Fairy Book, The Princess on the Glass Hill, sentence 53

When the two brothers got to the glass hill, all the princes and knights were trying to ride up it, and their horses were in a foam; but it was all in vain, for no sooner did the horses set foot upon the hill than down they slipped, and there was not one which could get even so much as a couple of yards up.

Who acts: two brothers, princes, horses, hill, one · What happens: get, try, ride up, be, do, set · To what, where: hill, foam, foot, much

This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess on the Glass Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two brothers, princes, horses, hill), 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	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	5 got	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 brothers	det
3	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 brothers	nummod
4	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 got	nsubj
5	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	9 hill	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 hill	det
8	glass	glass	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 hill	compound
9	hill	hill	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 got	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 got	punct
11	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	13 princes	det:predet
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 princes	det
13	princes	prince	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 trying	nsubj
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 knights	cc
15	knights	knight	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 princes	conj
16	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 trying	aux
17	trying	try	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 got	advcl
18	to	to	PART	_	19 ride	mark
19	ride	ride	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	17 trying	xcomp
20	up	up	ADP	_	19 ride	compound:prt
21	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 ride	obj
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 foam	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	29 foam	cc
24	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	25 horses	nmod:poss
25	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	29 foam	nsubj
26	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	29 foam	cop
27	in	in	ADP	_	29 foam	case
28	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	29 foam	det
29	foam	foam	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 got	obl
30	;	;	PUNCT	_	36 vain	punct
31	but	but	CCONJ	_	36 vain	cc
32	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 vain	nsubj
33	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 vain	cop
34	all	all	ADV	_	36 vain	advmod
35	in	in	ADP	_	36 vain	case
36	vain	vain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 got	conj
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 did	punct
38	for	for	SCONJ	_	41 did	mark
39	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	40 sooner	det
40	sooner	soon	ADV	Degree=Cmp	41 did	advmod
41	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 vain	parataxis
42	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 horses	det
43	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	44 set	nsubj
44	set	set	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	41 did	advcl
45	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 set	obj
46	upon	upon	ADP	_	48 hill	case
47	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	48 hill	det
48	hill	hill	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 set	obl
49	than	than	SCONJ	_	52 slipped	mark
50	down	down	ADP	_	52 slipped	mark
51	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 slipped	nsubj
52	slipped	slip	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	44 set	advcl
53	,	,	PUNCT	_	56 was	punct
54	and	and	CCONJ	_	56 was	cc
55	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	56 was	expl
56	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 vain	parataxis
57	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	58 one	advmod
58	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	61 get	nsubj
59	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	61 get	nsubj
60	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	61 get	aux
61	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	56 was	ccomp
62	even	even	ADV	_	64 much	advmod
63	so	so	ADV	_	64 much	advmod
64	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	61 get	obj
65	as	as	ADP	_	67 couple	case
66	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	67 couple	det
67	couple	couple	NOUN	Number=Sing	64 much	nmod
68	of	of	ADP	_	69 yards	case
69	yards	yards	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	67 couple	nmod
70	up	up	ADP	_	64 much	compound:prt
71	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 got	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	get	past	the two brothers			to the glass hill result	vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to hill=Result
2	try	past · progressive	all princes and knights				vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	ride up not said to happen	to-infinitive	all princes and knights not said here	hill			vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent it=Location
4	is	past	princes's horses		a foam		tree rules
5	is	past	hill			all, vain property	tree rules
6	do	past				soon property	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	set	past	the horses	foot	the hill		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent foot=Theme upon hill=Destination
8	slip	past	princes = prince				vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
9	be	past			there		tree rules
10	get	could	one	much		as a couple of yards	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer much=Stimulus as couple=Attribute

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/pg503/48/53/