Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 32, sentence 49
They plough all round it; but never touch the bottom: those who do not know whence came this trench call it a battlement.
Who acts: fathoms, trench · What happens: plough, not touch, not know, come, call · To what, where: bottom · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fathoms, trench), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 plough | nsubj |
| 2 | plough | plough | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | all | all | ADV | _ | 5 it | advmod |
| 4 | round | round | ADP | _ | 5 it | case |
| 5 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 plough | obl |
| 6 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 9 touch | punct |
| 7 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 9 touch | cc |
| 8 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 9 touch | advmod |
| 9 | touch | touch | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 2 plough | parataxis |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 bottom | det |
| 11 | bottom | bottom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 touch | obj |
| 12 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 17 know | punct |
| 13 | those | that | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 17 know | det |
| 14 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 17 know | nsubj |
| 15 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 17 know | aux |
| 16 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 17 know | advmod |
| 17 | know | know | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 plough | conj |
| 18 | whence | whence | ADV | PronType=Int | 19 came | advmod |
| 19 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 know | ccomp |
| 20 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 21 trench | det |
| 21 | trench | trench | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 call | nsubj |
| 22 | call | call | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 came | xcomp |
| 23 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 call | obj |
| 24 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 25 battlement | det |
| 25 | battlement | battlement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 call | xcomp |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 plough | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | plough | present | fathoms = fathom | round trench | vn wipe_instr-10.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | not touch | infinitive | the bottom | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme bottom=Co-Theme | |||||
| 3 | not know | present · do-support | who nsubj | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 4 | come | past | whence property | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | call | infinitive | this trench | bottom | a battlement xcomp | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |
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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/32/49/