The Red Fairy Book, Graciosa and Percinet, part 2, sentence 66
When she returned she brought with her a skein of thread, three times as big as herself; it was so fine that a breath of air would break it, and so tangled that it was impossible to see the beginning or the end of it.
Who acts: Fairy, breath · What happens: return, bring, be, break, tangle, see · To what, where: skein, beginning
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fairy, breath), 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 | 3 returned | advmod |
| 2 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 returned | nsubj |
| 3 | returned | return | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 brought | advcl |
| 4 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 brought | nsubj |
| 5 | brought | bring | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | with | with | ADP | _ | 7 her | case |
| 7 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 brought | obl |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 skein | det |
| 9 | skein | skein | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 brought | obj |
| 10 | of | of | ADP | _ | 11 thread | case |
| 11 | thread | thread | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 skein | nmod |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 times | punct |
| 13 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 14 times | nummod |
| 14 | times | time | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 skein | appos |
| 15 | as | as | ADV | _ | 16 big | advmod |
| 16 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 times | amod |
| 17 | as | as | ADP | _ | 18 herself | case |
| 18 | herself | herself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 16 big | obl |
| 19 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 23 fine | punct |
| 20 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 fine | expl |
| 21 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 fine | cop |
| 22 | so | so | ADV | _ | 23 fine | advmod |
| 23 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 brought | conj |
| 24 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 30 break | mark |
| 25 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 26 breath | det |
| 26 | breath | breath | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 break | nsubj |
| 27 | of | of | ADP | _ | 28 air | case |
| 28 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 breath | nmod |
| 29 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 30 break | aux |
| 30 | break | break | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 23 fine | advcl |
| 31 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 break | obj |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 tangled | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 tangled | cc |
| 34 | so | so | ADV | _ | 35 tangled | advmod |
| 35 | tangled | tangle | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 fine | parataxis |
| 36 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 39 impossible | mark |
| 37 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 impossible | expl |
| 38 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 39 impossible | cop |
| 39 | impossible | impossible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 tangled | ccomp |
| 40 | to | to | PART | _ | 41 see | mark |
| 41 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 39 impossible | csubj |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 beginning | det |
| 43 | beginning | beginning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 see | obj |
| 44 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 46 end | cc |
| 45 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 46 end | det |
| 46 | end | end | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 beginning | conj |
| 47 | of | of | ADP | _ | 48 it | case |
| 48 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 46 end | nmod |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 brought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | return | past | Fairy | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | bring | past | Fairy | a skein of thread | with Princess | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent skein=Theme | |||
| 3 | is | past | Fairy not said here | fine property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | break | would | a breath of air | skein | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient | ||||
| 5 | tangle | past | tree rules | ||||||
| 6 | is | past | impossible property | tree rules | |||||
| 7 | see | to-infinitive | the beginning or the end of breath | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer beginning=Stimulus |
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/pg540/24/66/