The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, sentence 64

In an instant the heavens seemed to darken round him and he was surrounded by fire--fire to right of him, fire to left of him, fire to front of him, fire to rear of him; nothing but fire whichever way he looked, for the dragon’s seven heads were vomiting flame.

Who acts: heavens, fire, Petru, seven heads · What happens: seem, darken, surround, rear, look, vomit · To what, where: instant, Petru, way, flame

This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heavens, fire, Petru, seven heads), 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 instant	case
2	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 instant	det
3	instant	instant	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 seemed	obl
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 heavens	det
5	heavens	heaven	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 seemed	nsubj
6	seemed	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 darken	mark
8	darken	darken	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 seemed	xcomp
9	round	round	ADP	_	10 him	case
10	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 darken	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 surrounded	cc
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 surrounded	nsubj:pass
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 surrounded	aux:pass
14	surrounded	surround	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 seemed	conj
15	by	by	ADP	_	16 fire	case
16	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 surrounded	obl
17	--	--	PUNCT	_	18 fire	punct
18	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 fire	conj
19	to	to	ADP	_	20 right	case
20	right	right	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 surrounded	obl
21	of	of	ADP	_	22 him	case
22	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 right	nmod
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 fire	punct
24	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 right	conj
25	to	to	ADP	_	26 left	case
26	left	left	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 fire	nmod
27	of	of	ADP	_	28 him	case
28	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 left	nmod
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 fire	punct
30	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 right	conj
31	to	to	ADP	_	32 front	case
32	front	front	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 fire	nmod
33	of	of	ADP	_	34 him	case
34	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 front	nmod
35	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 fire	punct
36	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 right	conj
37	to	to	PART	_	38 rear	mark
38	rear	rear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 fire	acl
39	of	of	ADP	_	40 him	case
40	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 rear	obl
41	;	;	PUNCT	_	42 nothing	punct
42	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	20 right	conj
43	but	but	CCONJ	_	44 fire	cc
44	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 nothing	conj
45	whichever	whichever	DET	PronType=Rel	46 way	det
46	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 nothing	appos
47	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	48 looked	nsubj
48	looked	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	46 way	acl:relcl
49	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 vomiting	punct
50	for	for	SCONJ	_	57 vomiting	mark
51	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	52 dragon	det
52	dragon	dragon	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 heads	nmod:poss
53	’s	's	PART	_	52 dragon	case
54	seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	55 heads	nummod
55	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	57 vomiting	nsubj
56	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	57 vomiting	aux
57	vomiting	vomit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 surrounded	conj
58	flame	flame	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 vomiting	obj
59	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 seemed	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	seem	past	the heavens		a instant		vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute
2	darken	to-infinitive	the heavens not said here			round Petru	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	surround	past · passive	fire and fire	Petru		to right of heaven and fire to left of heaven and fire to front of heaven and fire	vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Co-Theme
4	rear	to-infinitive	fire and fire not said here			of Petru	vn rear-26.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
5	look	past	Petru	whichever way not said here			vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme way=Attribute
6	vomit	past · progressive	the dragon's seven heads	flame			vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent flame=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/pg641/19/64/