The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 16

‘Here, indeed, it would be better to be a man than such a poor dumb fish as I am now,’ said he to himself; ‘if I could only remember the words that the troll says when he changes my shape, then perhaps I could help myself to become a man again.’

Who acts: side, fish, I, troll, myself · What happens: be, say, remember, change, help, become · To what, where: man, fish, words, shape, myself · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (side, fish, I, troll), 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	_	2 Here	punct
2	Here	here	ADV	PronType=Dem	26 said	parataxis
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 indeed	punct
4	indeed	indeed	ADV	_	2 Here	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 better	punct
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 better	nsubj
7	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 better	aux
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 better	cop
9	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 Here	parataxis
10	to	to	PART	_	13 man	mark
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 man	cop
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 man	det
13	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 better	advcl
14	than	than	ADP	_	19 fish	case
15	such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	19 fish	det:predet
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 fish	det
17	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 fish	amod
18	dumb	dumb	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 fish	amod
19	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 man	nmod
20	as	as	SCONJ	_	22 am	mark
21	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	22 am	nsubj
22	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 Here	advcl
23	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	22 am	advmod
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 Here	punct
25	’	'	PUNCT	_	2 Here	punct
26	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
27	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 said	nsubj
28	to	to	ADP	_	29 himself	case
29	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	26 said	obl
30	;	;	PUNCT	_	36 remember	punct
31	‘	'	PUNCT	_	36 remember	punct
32	if	if	SCONJ	_	36 remember	mark
33	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	36 remember	nsubj
34	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	36 remember	aux
35	only	only	ADV	_	36 remember	advmod
36	remember	remember	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 said	parataxis
37	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	38 words	det
38	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 remember	obj
39	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	42 says	obj
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 troll	det
41	troll	troll	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 says	nsubj
42	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	38 words	acl:relcl
43	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	45 changes	advmod
44	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	45 changes	nsubj
45	changes	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	42 says	ccomp
46	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	47 shape	nmod:poss
47	shape	shape	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 changes	obj
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 help	punct
49	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	53 help	advmod
50	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	_	53 help	advmod
51	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	53 help	nsubj
52	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	53 help	aux
53	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 remember	conj
54	myself	myself	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	53 help	obj
55	to	to	PART	_	56 become	mark
56	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	53 help	xcomp
57	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	58 man	det
58	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	56 become	xcomp
59	again	again	ADV	_	56 become	advmod
60	.	.	PUNCT	_	36 remember	punct
61	’	'	PUNCT	_	36 remember	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	side				good property	tree rules
2	is a	to-infinitive	side not said here	a man			than such poor dumb fish	tree rules
3	say speech: assert	past	fish		fish			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient
4	remember a condition, not said to happen	could	I	the words				vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent word=Theme
5	say speech: assert	present	the troll	the words				tree rules
6	change	present	troll	my shape				vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shape=Patient
7	help	could	I	myself		then	perhaps property	vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent myself=Beneficiary clause=Theme
8	become	to-infinitive	myself not said here	a man		again		vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

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/pg5615/27/16/