The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 166

Sometimes he would meet with a young man bent on the same business as himself, and then they would fight in a friendly manner, merely to prove which was the stronger, but on other occasions the enemy would turn out to be a robber, who had become the terror of the neighbourhood, and then the battle was in deadly earnest.

Who acts: boy, adventures, enemy, robber, battle · What happens: meet, bend, fight, prove, be, turn out · To what, where: young man, same business, friendly manner, other occasions, robber, terror

This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, adventures, enemy, robber), 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	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 meet	advmod
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 meet	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 meet	aux
4	meet	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 man	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 man	det
7	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 man	amod
8	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 meet	obl
9	bent	bend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 man	acl
10	on	on	ADP	_	13 business	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 business	det
12	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 business	amod
13	business	business	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 bent	obl
14	as	as	ADP	_	15 himself	case
15	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	13 business	nmod
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 fight	punct
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 fight	cc
18	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	21 fight	advmod
19	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 fight	nsubj
20	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	21 fight	aux
21	fight	fight	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 meet	conj
22	in	in	ADP	_	25 manner	case
23	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	25 manner	det
24	friendly	friendly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 manner	amod
25	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 fight	obl
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 prove	punct
27	merely	merely	ADV	_	29 prove	advmod
28	to	to	PART	_	29 prove	mark
29	prove	prove	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	4 meet	parataxis
30	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	33 stronger	nsubj
31	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 stronger	cop
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 stronger	det
33	stronger	strong	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	29 prove	ccomp
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	42 turn	punct
35	but	but	CCONJ	_	42 turn	cc
36	on	on	ADP	_	38 occasions	case
37	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	38 occasions	amod
38	occasions	occasion	NOUN	Number=Plur	42 turn	obl
39	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	40 enemy	det
40	enemy	enemy	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 turn	nsubj
41	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	42 turn	aux
42	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	29 prove	conj
43	out	out	ADP	_	42 turn	compound:prt
44	to	to	PART	_	47 robber	mark
45	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	47 robber	cop
46	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	47 robber	det
47	robber	robber	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 turn	xcomp
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 become	punct
49	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	51 become	nsubj
50	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	51 become	aux
51	become	become	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	47 robber	acl:relcl
52	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	53 terror	det
53	terror	terror	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 become	xcomp
54	of	of	ADP	_	56 neighbourhood	case
55	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	56 neighbourhood	det
56	neighbourhood	neighbourhood	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 terror	nmod
57	,	,	PUNCT	_	65 earnest	punct
58	and	and	CCONJ	_	65 earnest	cc
59	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	65 earnest	advmod
60	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	61 battle	det
61	battle	battle	NOUN	Number=Sing	65 earnest	nsubj
62	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	65 earnest	cop
63	in	in	ADP	_	65 earnest	case
64	deadly	deadly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	65 earnest	amod
65	earnest	earn	ADJ	Degree=Sup	47 robber	conj
66	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 meet	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	meet	would	boy				with a young man; sometimes property	vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with man=Co-Agent
2	bend	participle		a young man not said here	the same business as boy			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on business=Location
3	fight	would	adventures = adventure		a friendly manner	then		vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	prove	to-infinitive					merely property	vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent
5	is	past					strong property	tree rules
6	turn out	would	the enemy		other occasions			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on occasion=Location
7	is a	to-infinitive	the enemy not said here	a robber				tree rules
8	become	past · perfect	a robber	the terror of the neighbourhood				vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
9	is	past	the battle			then	earn property	tree rules

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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