The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 30
But as he entered a thick wood he saw in the distance a band of robbers who were coming quickly towards him.
Who acts: donkey, robbers · What happens: enter, see, come · To what, where: thick wood, band
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (donkey, robbers), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 9 saw | cc |
| 2 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 4 entered | mark |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 entered | nsubj |
| 4 | entered | enter | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 saw | advcl |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 wood | det |
| 6 | thick | thick | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 wood | amod |
| 7 | wood | wood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 entered | obj |
| 8 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 saw | nsubj |
| 9 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | in | in | ADP | _ | 12 distance | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 distance | det |
| 12 | distance | distance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 saw | obl |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 band | det |
| 14 | band | band | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 saw | obj |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 robbers | case |
| 16 | robbers | robber | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 band | nmod |
| 17 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 19 coming | nsubj |
| 18 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 coming | aux |
| 19 | coming | come | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 16 robbers | acl:relcl |
| 20 | quickly | quickly | ADV | _ | 19 coming | advmod |
| 21 | towards | towards | ADP | _ | 22 him | case |
| 22 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 coming | obl |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 saw | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | enter | past | donkey | a thick wood | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme wood=Destination | ||||
| 2 | see | past | donkey | a band of robbers | in the distance | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer band=Stimulus | |||
| 3 | come | past · progressive | robbers | towards donkey; quickly property | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme towards he=Initial_Location |
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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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/pg5615/17/30/