The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 3, sentence 49
But they had hardly turned their backs to go home empty-handed when the prince and the maiden stood on the earth again.
Who acts: pursuers, prince · What happens: turn, go, hand, stand · To what, where: backs, earth
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pursuers, prince), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 5 turned | cc |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 turned | nsubj |
| 3 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 turned | aux |
| 4 | hardly | hardly | ADV | _ | 5 turned | advmod |
| 5 | turned | turn | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 6 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 backs | nmod:poss |
| 7 | backs | back | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 turned | obj |
| 8 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 go | mark |
| 9 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 turned | advcl |
| 10 | home | home | ADV | _ | 9 go | advmod |
| 11 | empty | empty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 go | xcomp |
| 12 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 13 handed | punct |
| 13 | handed | hand | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 empty | conj |
| 14 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 20 stood | advmod |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 prince | det |
| 16 | prince | prince | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 stood | nsubj |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 maiden | cc |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 maiden | det |
| 19 | maiden | maiden | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 prince | conj |
| 20 | stood | stand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 handed | advcl |
| 21 | on | on | ADP | _ | 23 earth | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 earth | det |
| 23 | earth | earth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 stood | obl |
| 24 | again | again | ADV | _ | 20 stood | advmod |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 turned | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | turn | past · perfect | pursuers = pursuer | pursuers's backs | hardly property | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent back=Theme | |||
| 2 | go | to-infinitive | pursuers = pursuer not said here | empty, home property | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | hand | participle | pursuers = pursuer not said here | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | stand | past | the prince and the maiden | the earth | again | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on earth=Location |
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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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/pg641/11/49/