Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 19, sentence 110
Once upon a time there lived a king on the earth whose name was Alexander of Macedon: this was in the old days very long ago.
Who acts: name, this, Alexander · What happens: live, be, name · To what, where: king, earth, Alexander
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (name, this, Alexander), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 6 lived | advmod |
| 2 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 4 time | case |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 time | det |
| 4 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 lived | obl |
| 5 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 6 lived | advmod |
| 6 | lived | live | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 king | det |
| 8 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 lived | obj |
| 9 | on | on | ADP | _ | 11 earth | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 earth | det |
| 11 | earth | earth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 lived | obl |
| 12 | whose | whose | PRON | Poss=Yes PronType=Rel | 13 name | nmod:poss |
| 13 | name | name | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 Alexander | nsubj |
| 14 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 Alexander | cop |
| 15 | Alexander | Alexander | PROPN | Number=Sing | 11 earth | conj |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 Macedon | case |
| 17 | Macedon | Macedon | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 Alexander | nmod |
| 18 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 27 ago | punct |
| 19 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 27 ago | nsubj |
| 20 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 ago | cop |
| 21 | in | in | ADP | _ | 24 days | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 days | det |
| 23 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 days | amod |
| 24 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 was | obl |
| 25 | very | very | ADV | _ | 26 long | advmod |
| 26 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 27 ago | advmod |
| 27 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 6 lived | advmod |
| 28 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 lived | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | live | past | a king | the earth and Alexander; there | time | once property | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme king=Location | ||
| 2 | is a | past | Alexander's name | Alexander | of Macedon | tree rules | |||
| 3 | is | past | this | ago, long property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | name | Alexander | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
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: «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Project Gutenberg book 62509 (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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