The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 124

The sun was high in the sky before the head-man, whose business it was, came to look at the date tree, expecting to find it stripped of all its fruit, but when he saw the dates so thick that they almost hid the leaves he ran back to his house, and beat a big drum till everybody came running, and even the little children wanted to know what had happened.

Who acts: sun, business, dates, everybody, little children · What happens: be, come, look, expect, find, strip · To what, where: sky, business, dates, leaves, big drum · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sun, business, dates, everybody), 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	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sun	det
2	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 high	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 high	cop
4	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 sky	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 sky	det
7	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 high	obl
8	before	before	ADP	_	12 man	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 man	det
10	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 man	compound
11	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 head	punct
12	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 high	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 business	punct
14	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	15 business	nmod:poss
15	business	business	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 man	appos
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 was	nsubj
17	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 business	acl:relcl
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 came	punct
19	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 high	parataxis
20	to	to	PART	_	21 look	mark
21	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 came	advcl
22	at	at	ADP	_	25 tree	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 tree	det
24	date	date	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 tree	compound
25	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 look	obl
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 expecting	punct
27	expecting	expect	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	19 came	advcl
28	to	to	PART	_	29 find	mark
29	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	27 expecting	xcomp
30	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 find	obj
31	stripped	strip	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	29 find	xcomp
32	of	of	ADP	_	35 fruit	case
33	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	35 fruit	det:predet
34	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	35 fruit	nmod:poss
35	fruit	fruit	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 stripped	obl
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 saw	punct
37	but	but	CCONJ	_	40 saw	cc
38	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	40 saw	advmod
39	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 saw	nsubj
40	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 high	parataxis
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 dates	det
42	dates	date	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 saw	obj
43	so	so	ADV	_	44 thick	advmod
44	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	40 saw	xcomp
45	that	that	SCONJ	_	48 hid	mark
46	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	48 hid	nsubj
47	almost	almost	ADV	_	48 hid	advmod
48	hid	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	44 thick	advcl
49	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	50 leaves	det
50	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	48 hid	obj
51	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 ran	nsubj
52	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	48 hid	advcl
53	back	back	ADV	_	52 ran	advmod
54	to	to	ADP	_	56 house	case
55	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	56 house	nmod:poss
56	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	52 ran	obl
57	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 beat	punct
58	and	and	CCONJ	_	59 beat	cc
59	beat	beat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	40 saw	conj
60	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	62 drum	det
61	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	62 drum	amod
62	drum	drum	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 beat	obj
63	till	till	SCONJ	_	65 came	mark
64	everybody	everybody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	65 came	nsubj
65	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	59 beat	advcl
66	running	run	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	65 came	xcomp
67	,	,	PUNCT	_	73 wanted	punct
68	and	and	CCONJ	_	73 wanted	cc
69	even	even	ADV	_	72 children	advmod
70	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	72 children	det
71	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	72 children	amod
72	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	73 wanted	nsubj
73	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 high	parataxis
74	to	to	PART	_	75 know	mark
75	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	73 wanted	xcomp
76	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	78 happened	nsubj
77	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	78 happened	aux
78	happened	happen	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	75 know	ccomp
79	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 high	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the sun		the sky	before the head man	high property	tree rules
2	come	past						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	look	to-infinitive					at the date tree	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at tree=Theme
4	expect	gerund						vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
5	find not said to happen	to-infinitive		business				vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent it=Attribute clause=Theme
6	strip	participle	business not said here				of business's fruit	vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	see	past	sun	the dates			thick property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer date=Stimulus
8	hide	past	dates = date	the leaves			almost property	vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Patient
9	run back	past	sun				to sun's house result	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to house=Result
10	beat	infinitive	sun not said here	a big drum				vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location drum=Theme
11	come	past	everybody					tree rules
12	run	gerund	everybody not said here					vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
13	want	past	the little children					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
14	know not said to happen	to-infinitive	the little children not said here					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
15	happen	past · perfect						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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