The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 120

At first a language was often spoken at meals which was strange to Elsa, but by the help of the lady and her daughter she began slowly to understand it, though it was years before she was able to speak it herself.

Who acts: meals, daughter, language · What happens: speak, be, begin, understand, help · To what, where: language, meals, Elsa, years, lady · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (meals, daughter, language), 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	At	at	SCONJ	_	7 spoken	mark
2	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	7 spoken	advmod
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 language	det
4	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 spoken	nsubj:pass
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 spoken	aux:pass
6	often	often	ADV	_	7 spoken	advmod
7	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	27 began	advcl
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 meals	case
9	meals	meal	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 spoken	obl
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 strange	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 strange	cop
12	strange	strange	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 meals	acl:relcl
13	to	to	ADP	_	14 Elsa	case
14	Elsa	Elsa	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 strange	obl
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 began	punct
16	but	but	CCONJ	_	27 began	cc
17	by	by	ADP	_	19 help	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 help	det
19	help	help	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 began	obl
20	of	of	ADP	_	22 lady	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 lady	det
22	lady	lady	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 help	nmod
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 daughter	cc
24	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	25 daughter	nmod:poss
25	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 lady	conj
26	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 began	nsubj
27	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
28	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	27 began	advmod
29	to	to	PART	_	30 understand	mark
30	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	27 began	xcomp
31	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 understand	obj
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 years	punct
33	though	though	SCONJ	_	36 years	mark
34	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 years	nsubj
35	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 years	cop
36	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	30 understand	obl
37	before	before	SCONJ	_	40 able	mark
38	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 able	nsubj
39	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	40 able	cop
40	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	36 years	acl
41	to	to	PART	_	42 speak	mark
42	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	40 able	xcomp
43	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	42 speak	obj
44	herself	herself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	42 speak	obl
45	.	.	PUNCT	_	27 began	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	past · passive		a language		meals	first, often property	tree rules
2	is	past	meals		Elsa		strange property	tree rules
3	begin	past	daughter				by the help of the lady and lady's daughter; slowly property	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
4	understand	to-infinitive	daughter not said here	language				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
5	is a	past	language	years				tree rules
6	is	past	daughter	years not said here			able property	tree rules
7	speak speech: other	to-infinitive	daughter not said here	language			daughter obl	tree rules
8	help			the lady and lady's daughter				nom help «act transitive»: of=patient

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.

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