The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 28

Now it was not difficult for Saphir to guess the reason of the change in her, nor why the new mirror was consulted so often; but try as he would he could never see the face of the person who was reflected in it, for the young girl’s figure always came between.

Who acts: Saphir, figure, young girl · What happens: not be, guess, consult, try, not see, reflect · To what, where: reason, new mirror, face, person, mirror

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 (Saphir, figure, young girl), 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	Now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	5 difficult	advmod
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 difficult	expl
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 difficult	cop
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 difficult	advmod
5	difficult	difficult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 Saphir	case
7	Saphir	Saphir	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 difficult	obl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 guess	mark
9	guess	guess	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 difficult	csubj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 reason	det
11	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 guess	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 change	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 change	det
14	change	change	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 reason	nmod
15	in	in	ADP	_	16 her	case
16	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 change	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 consulted	punct
18	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	24 consulted	cc
19	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	24 consulted	advmod
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 mirror	det
21	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 mirror	amod
22	mirror	mirror	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 consulted	nsubj:pass
23	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 consulted	aux:pass
24	consulted	consult	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 guess	advcl
25	so	so	ADV	_	26 often	advmod
26	often	often	ADV	_	24 consulted	advmod
27	;	;	PUNCT	_	29 try	punct
28	but	but	CCONJ	_	29 try	cc
29	try	try	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 difficult	parataxis
30	as	as	SCONJ	_	36 see	mark
31	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 see	nsubj
32	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	36 see	aux
33	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 see	nsubj
34	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	36 see	aux
35	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	36 see	advmod
36	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	29 try	xcomp
37	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	38 face	det
38	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 see	obj
39	of	of	ADP	_	41 person	case
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 person	det
41	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 face	nmod
42	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	44 reflected	nsubj
43	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	44 reflected	aux:pass
44	reflected	reflect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	41 person	acl:relcl
45	in	in	ADP	_	46 it	case
46	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	44 reflected	obl
47	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 figure	punct
48	for	for	ADP	_	53 figure	case
49	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	51 girl	det
50	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	51 girl	amod
51	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 figure	nmod:poss
52	’s	's	PART	_	51 girl	case
53	figure	figure	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 see	parataxis
54	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	55 came	advmod
55	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	53 figure	acl:relcl
56	between	between	ADP	_	55 came	obl
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 difficult	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is	past				now	for Saphir; difficult property	tree rules
2	guess	to-infinitive		the reason of the change in girl				vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	consult	past · passive		the new mirror			often property	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
4	try	present						vn try-61.1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
5	not see not said to happen	could	Saphir	the face of the person				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer face=Stimulus
6	reflect	past · passive		the person	mirror			tree rules
7	come	past	the young girl's figure not said here				always property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
8	figure		the young girl					nom figure «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: «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.

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