The Yellow Fairy Book, The Tinder-box, sentence 135
The Soldier was already standing on the top of the ladder; but when they wanted to put the rope round his neck, he said that the fulfilment of one innocent request was always granted to a poor criminal before he underwent his punishment.
Who acts: Soldier, judges · What happens: stand, want, put, say, grant, undergo · To what, where: top, rope, fulfilment, poor criminal, punishment, one innocent request · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tinder-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Soldier, judges), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 Soldier | det |
| 2 | Soldier | Soldier | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 standing | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 standing | aux |
| 4 | already | already | ADV | _ | 5 standing | advmod |
| 5 | standing | stand | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 6 | on | on | ADP | _ | 8 top | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 top | det |
| 8 | top | top | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 standing | obl |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 11 ladder | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 ladder | det |
| 11 | ladder | ladder | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 top | nmod |
| 12 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 26 said | punct |
| 13 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 26 said | cc |
| 14 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 16 wanted | advmod |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 wanted | nsubj |
| 16 | wanted | want | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 said | advcl |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 put | mark |
| 18 | put | put | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 wanted | xcomp |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 rope | det |
| 20 | rope | rope | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 put | obj |
| 21 | round | round | ADP | _ | 23 neck | case |
| 22 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 neck | nmod:poss |
| 23 | neck | neck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 put | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 wanted | punct |
| 25 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 said | nsubj |
| 26 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 standing | conj |
| 27 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 36 granted | mark |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 fulfilment | det |
| 29 | fulfilment | fulfilment | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 granted | nsubj:pass |
| 30 | of | of | ADP | _ | 33 request | case |
| 31 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 33 request | nummod |
| 32 | innocent | innocent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 request | amod |
| 33 | request | request | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 fulfilment | nmod |
| 34 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 36 granted | aux:pass |
| 35 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 36 granted | advmod |
| 36 | granted | grant | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 26 said | ccomp |
| 37 | to | to | ADP | _ | 40 criminal | case |
| 38 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 40 criminal | det |
| 39 | poor | poor | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 criminal | amod |
| 40 | criminal | criminal | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 granted | obl |
| 41 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 43 underwent | mark |
| 42 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 underwent | nsubj |
| 43 | underwent | undergo | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 36 granted | advcl |
| 44 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 45 punishment | nmod:poss |
| 45 | punishment | punishment | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 underwent | obj |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 standing | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | stand | past · progressive | the Soldier | the top of the ladder | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on top=Location | ||||
| 2 | want | past | judges = judge | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | put not said to happen | to-infinitive | judges = judge not said here | the rope | round soldier's neck | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent rope=Goal | |||
| 4 | say speech: assert | past | soldier | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | grant | past · passive | the fulfilment of one innocent request | to a poor criminal goal; always property | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: subject=Theme to criminal=Goal | ||||
| 6 | undergo | past | soldier | soldier's punishment | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | fulfil | one innocent request | nom fulfilment «feeling transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 8 | punish | soldier | nom punishment «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: «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/pg640/46/135/