The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, sentence 10

The genius scoffed, and inquired what female hand could ever wield a sabre like that; but, in spite of his sneers, his mother persisted, and as a proof of what she said, laid at night on each of their pillows a handful of magic flowers, that fade at the touch of man, but remain eternally fresh in the fingers of a woman.

Who acts: genius, female hand, spite, girl, magic flowers, hand · What happens: scoff, inquire, wield, persist, say, lay · To what, where: genius, sabre, proof, touch, sneers, man · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (genius, female hand, spite, girl), 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 genius	det
2	genius	genius	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 inquired	nsubj
3	scoffed	scoff	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 genius	acl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 inquired	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 inquired	cc
6	inquired	inquire	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	12 wield	obj
8	female	female	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 hand	amod
9	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 wield	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 wield	aux
11	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	12 wield	advmod
12	wield	wield	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 inquired	ccomp
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 sabre	det
14	sabre	sabre	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 wield	obj
15	like	like	ADP	_	16 that	case
16	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	14 sabre	nmod
17	;	;	PUNCT	_	28 persisted	punct
18	but	but	CCONJ	_	28 persisted	cc
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 spite	punct
20	in	in	ADP	_	21 spite	case
21	spite	spite	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 persisted	nsubj
22	of	of	ADP	_	24 sneers	case
23	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	24 sneers	nmod:poss
24	sneers	sneer	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 spite	nmod
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 mother	punct
26	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	27 mother	nmod:poss
27	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 spite	conj
28	persisted	persist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 inquired	conj
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 proof	punct
30	and	and	CCONJ	_	33 proof	cc
31	as	as	ADP	_	33 proof	case
32	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	33 proof	det
33	proof	proof	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 persisted	parataxis
34	of	of	ADP	_	35 what	case
35	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	33 proof	nmod
36	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	37 said	nsubj
37	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	35 what	acl:relcl
38	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 laid	punct
39	laid	lay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	33 proof	acl
40	at	at	ADP	_	41 night	case
41	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 laid	obl
42	on	on	ADP	_	43 each	case
43	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	41 night	nmod
44	of	of	ADP	_	46 pillows	case
45	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	46 pillows	nmod:poss
46	pillows	pillow	NOUN	Number=Plur	43 each	nmod
47	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	48 handful	det
48	handful	handful	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 pillows	appos
49	of	of	ADP	_	51 flowers	case
50	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 flowers	compound
51	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	48 handful	nmod
52	,	,	PUNCT	_	54 fade	punct
53	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	54 fade	nsubj
54	fade	fade	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	51 flowers	acl:relcl
55	at	at	ADP	_	57 touch	case
56	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	57 touch	det
57	touch	touch	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 fade	obl
58	of	of	ADP	_	59 man	case
59	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 touch	nmod
60	,	,	PUNCT	_	62 remain	punct
61	but	but	CCONJ	_	62 remain	cc
62	remain	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 inquired	conj
63	eternally	eternally	ADV	_	64 fresh	advmod
64	fresh	fresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	62 remain	xcomp
65	in	in	ADP	_	67 fingers	case
66	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	67 fingers	det
67	fingers	finger	NOUN	Number=Plur	64 fresh	obl
68	of	of	ADP	_	70 woman	case
69	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	70 woman	det
70	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	67 fingers	nmod
71	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 inquired	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scoff	participle		the genius not said here				vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	inquire speech: other	past	the genius					vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	wield	could	female hand	a sabre		ever	like that	tree rules
4	persist	past	spite of hand's sneers and hand's mother					vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	say speech: assert	past	girl					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
6	lay	participle		a proof not said here		night		vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
7	fade	present	magic flowers		the touch of man			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
8	remain	present	the genius not said here				fresh property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
9	spite			hand's sneers				nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient
10	sneer		hand					nom sneer «communication intransitive»: poss=agent
11	touch			man				nom touch «event 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/39/10/