The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 156

It is a well-known fact that a bad woman seldom becomes better as she grows older, and Elsa’s stepmother was no exception to the rule; but as the figure that had taken the girl’s place could feel no pain, the blows that were showered on her night and day made no difference.

Who acts: double, bad woman, fact, stepmother, blows · What happens: know, be, become, grow, take, feel · To what, where: known fact, exception, figure, pain, blows, difference

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 (double, bad woman, fact, stepmother), 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 fact	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 fact	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 fact	det
4	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 known	advmod
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 well	punct
6	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 fact	amod
7	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	13 becomes	mark
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 woman	det
10	bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 woman	amod
11	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 becomes	nsubj
12	seldom	seldom	ADV	_	13 becomes	advmod
13	becomes	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 fact	advcl
14	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	13 becomes	xcomp
15	as	as	SCONJ	_	17 grows	mark
16	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 grows	nsubj
17	grows	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 better	advcl
18	older	old	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	17 grows	xcomp
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 exception	punct
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 exception	cc
21	Elsa	Elsa	PROPN	Number=Sing	23 stepmother	nmod:poss
22	’s	's	PART	_	21 Elsa	case
23	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 exception	nsubj
24	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 exception	cop
25	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	26 exception	det
26	exception	exception	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 grows	parataxis
27	to	to	ADP	_	29 rule	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 rule	det
29	rule	rule	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 exception	nmod
30	;	;	PUNCT	_	43 feel	punct
31	but	but	CCONJ	_	43 feel	cc
32	as	as	ADP	_	34 figure	case
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	34 figure	det
34	figure	figure	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 feel	obl
35	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	37 taken	nsubj:pass
36	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	37 taken	aux
37	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	34 figure	acl:relcl
38	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	39 girl	det
39	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 place	nmod:poss
40	’s	's	PART	_	39 girl	case
41	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 taken	obj
42	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	43 feel	aux
43	feel	feel	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	7 fact	parataxis
44	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	45 pain	det
45	pain	pain	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 feel	obj
46	,	,	PUNCT	_	48 blows	punct
47	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	48 blows	det
48	blows	blow	NOUN	Number=Plur	57 made	nsubj
49	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	51 showered	nsubj:pass
50	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	51 showered	aux:pass
51	showered	shower	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	48 blows	acl:relcl
52	on	on	ADP	_	54 night	case
53	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	54 night	nmod:poss
54	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 showered	obl
55	and	and	CCONJ	_	56 day	cc
56	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 night	conj
57	made	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	43 feel	ccomp
58	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	59 difference	det
59	difference	difference	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 made	obj
60	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 fact	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	know	participle				well property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	is a	present	double	a known fact			tree rules
3	become	present	a bad woman			good, seldom property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
4	grow	present	fact			old property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	is a	past	Elsa's stepmother	no exception		to the rule	tree rules
6	take	past · perfect · passive		the figure			vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme place=Destination
7	feel	could		no pain		as the figure	tree rules
8	shower	past · passive		the blows	night		vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
9	make	past	the blows	no difference			vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset difference=Product

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/pg641/2/156/