The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 29

On a high stool against the wall sat the man with the pinewood staff, watching sharply the way the little fellows did their work, and near him stood a large can, from which every now and then the workers would come and take a drink.

Who acts: little fellows, workers, fellows · What happens: sit, watch, do, stand, come, take · To what, where: man, high stool, way, work, drink

This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little fellows, workers, fellows), 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	On	on	ADP	_	4 stool	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 stool	det
3	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 stool	amod
4	stool	stool	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sat	obl
5	against	against	ADP	_	7 wall	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 wall	det
7	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 stool	nmod
8	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 man	det
10	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sat	obj
11	with	with	ADP	_	14 staff	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 staff	det
13	pinewood	pinewood	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 staff	compound
14	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 man	nmod
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 watching	punct
16	watching	watch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 sat	advcl
17	sharply	sharply	ADV	_	16 watching	advmod
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 way	det
19	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 watching	obl
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 fellows	det
21	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 fellows	amod
22	fellows	fellow	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 did	nsubj
23	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 way	acl:relcl
24	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	25 work	nmod:poss
25	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 did	obj
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 stood	punct
27	and	and	CCONJ	_	30 stood	cc
28	near	near	ADP	_	29 him	case
29	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 stood	obl
30	stood	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 sat	conj
31	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	32 large	det
32	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	33 can	nsubj
33	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	30 stood	obl
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	44 come	punct
35	from	from	ADP	_	36 which	case
36	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	44 come	obl
37	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	44 come	det
38	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	44 come	advmod
39	and	and	CCONJ	_	44 come	cc
40	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	44 come	advmod
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 workers	det
42	workers	worker	NOUN	Number=Plur	44 come	nsubj
43	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	44 come	aux
44	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 stood	parataxis
45	and	and	CCONJ	_	46 take	cc
46	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	44 come	conj
47	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	48 drink	det
48	drink	drink	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 take	obj
49	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 sat	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sit	past		the man	a high stool against the wall		with the pinewood staff	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent man=Theme on stool=Location
2	watch	gerund		the way			sharply property	vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent
3	do	past	the little fellows	fellows's work				vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Eventuality
4	stand	past					near man	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near he=Location
5	come	would	the workers			now; then		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from which=Initial_Location
6	take	infinitive	the workers not said here	a drink				vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent drink=Theme
7	work		fellows = fellow					nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent

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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