Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 8, sentence 126
But there was also an evil witch who could not bear them, and she began to lay plots how she might contrive their overthrow.
Who acts: evil witch, witch, children · What happens: be, not bear, begin, lay, contrive, overthrow · To what, where: children, plots, overthrow
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (evil witch, witch, children), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 3 was | cc |
| 2 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 3 was | expl |
| 3 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | also | also | ADV | _ | 7 witch | advmod |
| 5 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 witch | det |
| 6 | evil | evil | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 witch | amod |
| 7 | witch | witch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 was | nsubj |
| 8 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 11 bear | nsubj |
| 9 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 11 bear | aux |
| 10 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 11 bear | advmod |
| 11 | bear | bear | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 witch | acl:relcl |
| 12 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 bear | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 began | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 began | cc |
| 15 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 began | nsubj |
| 16 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 was | conj |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 lay | mark |
| 18 | lay | lay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 began | xcomp |
| 19 | plots | plot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 lay | obj |
| 20 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 23 contrive | advmod |
| 21 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 contrive | nsubj |
| 22 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 23 contrive | aux |
| 23 | contrive | contrive | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 lay | advcl |
| 24 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 overthrow | nmod:poss |
| 25 | overthrow | overthrow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 contrive | obj |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 was | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | past | a evil witch | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | not bear | could | a evil witch | children = child | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient | ||||
| 3 | begin | past | witch | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 4 | lay | to-infinitive | witch not said here | plots | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plot=Result | ||||
| 5 | contrive | might | witch | children's overthrow | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent overthrow=Result | ||||
| 6 | overthrow | children = child | nom overthrow «act 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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/126/