The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 236

‘Well,’ said the Governor, ‘I certainly am the chief man about here, but people soon begin to talk, and it would be very unpleasant if they were to see this dead body; the best thing that I can do is to go out and bury him.’

Who acts: Governor, I, people, body, best thing · What happens: say, be, begin, talk, see, do · To what, where: chief man, dead body, best thing, Governor · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Governor, I, people, body), 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	‘	'	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct
2	Well	well	INTJ	_	5 said	discourse
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 Well	punct
4	’	'	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct
5	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Governor	det
7	Governor	Governor	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 said	nsubj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 man	punct
9	‘	'	PUNCT	_	15 man	punct
10	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	15 man	nsubj
11	certainly	certainly	ADV	_	12 am	advmod
12	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 man	cop
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 man	det
14	chief	chief	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 man	amod
15	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 said	ccomp
16	about	about	ADP	_	17 here	case
17	here	here	ADV	PronType=Dem	15 man	nmod
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 begin	punct
19	but	but	CCONJ	_	22 begin	cc
20	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 begin	nsubj
21	soon	soon	ADV	Degree=Pos	22 begin	advmod
22	begin	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 said	ccomp
23	to	to	PART	_	24 talk	mark
24	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 begin	xcomp
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	31 unpleasant	punct
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	31 unpleasant	cc
27	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 unpleasant	nsubj
28	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	31 unpleasant	aux
29	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	31 unpleasant	cop
30	very	very	ADV	_	31 unpleasant	advmod
31	unpleasant	unpleasant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 begin	conj
32	if	if	SCONJ	_	36 see	mark
33	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 see	nsubj
34	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 see	aux
35	to	to	PART	_	36 see	mark
36	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	31 unpleasant	advcl
37	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	39 body	det
38	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	39 body	amod
39	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 see	obj
40	;	;	PUNCT	_	50 go	punct
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 thing	det
42	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	43 thing	amod
43	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 go	nsubj:outer
44	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	47 do	obj
45	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	47 do	nsubj
46	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	47 do	aux
47	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	43 thing	acl:relcl
48	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	50 go	cop
49	to	to	PART	_	50 go	mark
50	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 begin	conj
51	out	out	ADV	_	50 go	advmod
52	and	and	CCONJ	_	53 bury	cc
53	bury	bury	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	50 go	conj
54	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 bury	obj
55	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct
56	’	'	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	the Governor			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	is a	present	I	the chief man		tree rules
3	begin	present	people		soon property	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
4	talk	to-infinitive	people not said here			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	is	would	body		unpleasant property	tree rules
6	see a condition, not said to happen	past	people	this dead body		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer body=Stimulus
7	do	can	I	the best thing		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality
8	is	present	the best thing		go, out property	tree rules
9	bury	infinitive	the best thing not said here	Governor		vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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 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.

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