The Red Fairy Book, The Norka, sentence 67
She told him that her brother was at that time asleep on the blue sea, and she gave him a sword of steel and a draught of the Water of Strength, and she told him to cut off her brother’s head at a single stroke.
Who acts: sister, brother · What happens: tell, be, give, cut off · To what, where: Prince, blue sea, sword, head, single stroke · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Norka. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sister, brother), 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 | She | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 told | nsubj |
| 2 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 told | iobj |
| 4 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 11 asleep | mark |
| 5 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 brother | nmod:poss |
| 6 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 asleep | nsubj |
| 7 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 asleep | cop |
| 8 | at | at | SCONJ | _ | 11 asleep | mark |
| 9 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 11 asleep | nsubj |
| 10 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 asleep | obl:unmarked |
| 11 | asleep | asleep | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 told | ccomp |
| 12 | on | on | ADP | _ | 15 sea | case |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 sea | det |
| 14 | blue | blue | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 sea | amod |
| 15 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 asleep | obl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 gave | punct |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 gave | cc |
| 18 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 gave | nsubj |
| 19 | gave | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 told | conj |
| 20 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 gave | iobj |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 22 sword | det |
| 22 | sword | sword | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 gave | obj |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 24 steel | case |
| 24 | steel | steel | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 sword | nmod |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 draught | cc |
| 26 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 27 draught | det |
| 27 | draught | draught | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 sword | conj |
| 28 | of | of | ADP | _ | 30 Water | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 Water | det |
| 30 | Water | Water | PROPN | Number=Sing | 27 draught | nmod |
| 31 | of | of | ADP | _ | 32 Strength | case |
| 32 | Strength | Strength | PROPN | Number=Sing | 30 Water | nmod |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 told | punct |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 told | cc |
| 35 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 told | nsubj |
| 36 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 told | parataxis |
| 37 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 told | iobj |
| 38 | to | to | PART | _ | 39 cut | mark |
| 39 | cut | cut | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 36 told | xcomp |
| 40 | off | off | ADP | _ | 39 cut | compound:prt |
| 41 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 brother | nmod:poss |
| 42 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 head | nmod:poss |
| 43 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 42 brother | case |
| 44 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 cut | obj |
| 45 | at | at | ADP | _ | 48 stroke | case |
| 46 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 48 stroke | det |
| 47 | single | single | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 48 stroke | amod |
| 48 | stroke | stroke | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 cut | obl |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | sister | Prince | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | is | past | sister's brother | the blue sea | time | asleep property | tree rules | ||
| 3 | give | past | sister | a sword of steel and a draught of the Water of Strength | Prince | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient sword=Theme | |||
| 4 | tell speech: assert | past | sister | Prince | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 5 | cut off not said to happen | to-infinitive | sister not said here | sister's brother's head | a single stroke | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |
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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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/pg540/13/67/