The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 14

It seems hardly possible that any man should live like Peridor for fifteen years plunged in such depth of grief, and most likely he would have died too if it had not been for the fairies.

Who acts: It, man, grief · What happens: seem, live, plunge, die, not be · To what, where: fifteen years

This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, man, grief), 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 seems	nsubj
2	seems	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	_	4 possible	advmod
4	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 seems	xcomp
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 live	mark
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 man	det
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 live	nsubj
8	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 live	aux
9	live	live	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 seems	xcomp
10	like	like	ADP	_	11 Peridor	case
11	Peridor	Peridor	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 live	obl
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 years	case
13	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 years	nummod
14	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 live	obl
15	plunged	plunge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 years	acl
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 depth	case
17	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 depth	amod
18	depth	depth	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 plunged	obl
19	of	of	ADP	_	20 grief	case
20	grief	grief	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 depth	nmod
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 died	punct
22	and	and	CCONJ	_	28 died	cc
23	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	24 likely	advmod
24	likely	likely	ADV	_	28 died	advmod
25	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	28 died	nsubj
26	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	28 died	aux
27	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	28 died	aux
28	died	die	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	2 seems	conj
29	too	too	ADV	_	28 died	advmod
30	if	if	SCONJ	_	37 fairies	mark
31	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	37 fairies	nsubj
32	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	37 fairies	aux
33	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	37 fairies	advmod
34	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	37 fairies	cop
35	for	for	ADP	_	37 fairies	case
36	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 fairies	det
37	fairies	fairy	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 died	advcl
38	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 seems	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	seem	present	It			possible property	vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute
2	live	should	any man		year	like Peridor	vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	plunge	participle		fifteen years not said here		in such depth of grief	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in depth=Attribute
4	die	would · perfect	man			likely property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
5	not is a condition, not said to happen	past · perfect	grief			for the fairies	tree rules

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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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/pg640/11/14/