The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 2
One day he was scratching as usual among a dust-heap in the street, hoping to find something for breakfast, when his eye fell upon a small silver coin, called an eighth, which he greedily snatched up.
Who acts: man, eye, small silver coin · What happens: scratch, hope, find, fall, call, snatch up · To what, where: dust heap, something, small silver coin, eighth · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, eye, small silver coin), 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 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 day | nummod |
| 2 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 scratching | obl:unmarked |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 scratching | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 scratching | aux |
| 5 | scratching | scratch | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 6 | as | as | ADP | _ | 7 usual | case |
| 7 | usual | usual | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 scratching | obl |
| 8 | among | among | ADP | _ | 12 heap | case |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 heap | det |
| 10 | dust | dust | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 heap | compound |
| 11 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 10 dust | punct |
| 12 | heap | heap | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 scratching | obl |
| 13 | in | in | ADP | _ | 15 street | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 street | det |
| 15 | street | street | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 heap | nmod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 hoping | punct |
| 17 | hoping | hope | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 scratching | conj |
| 18 | to | to | PART | _ | 19 find | mark |
| 19 | find | find | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 hoping | xcomp |
| 20 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 19 find | obj |
| 21 | for | for | ADP | _ | 22 breakfast | case |
| 22 | breakfast | breakfast | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 find | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 fell | punct |
| 24 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 27 fell | advmod |
| 25 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 eye | nmod:poss |
| 26 | eye | eye | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 fell | nsubj |
| 27 | fell | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 scratching | conj |
| 28 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 32 coin | case |
| 29 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 32 coin | det |
| 30 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 coin | amod |
| 31 | silver | silver | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 coin | compound |
| 32 | coin | coin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 fell | obl |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 called | punct |
| 34 | called | call | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 32 coin | acl |
| 35 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 36 eighth | det |
| 36 | eighth | eighth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 called | obj |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 snatched | punct |
| 38 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 41 snatched | obj |
| 39 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 snatched | nsubj |
| 40 | greedily | greedily | ADV | _ | 41 snatched | advmod |
| 41 | snatched | snatch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 36 eighth | conj |
| 42 | up | up | ADP | _ | 41 snatched | compound:prt |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 scratching | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | scratch | past · progressive | man | a dust heap in the street | day | as usual | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent among heap=Location | ||
| 2 | hope | gerund | man not said here | vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | find not said to happen | to-infinitive | man not said here | something | for breakfast | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent something=Theme for breakfast=Beneficiary | |||
| 4 | fall | past | man's eye | a small silver coin | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon coin=Location | ||||
| 5 | call | participle | a small silver coin not said here | a eighth | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent eighth=Recipient | ||||
| 6 | snatch up | past | man | a eighth | greedily property | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Theme |
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/pg641/15/2/