The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 187

But the men whom he asked only shook their heads and told him it was not a matter in which he could give any help, for all this sorrow was caused by the Spirit of the Mountain, to whom every year they were bound to furnish a maiden for him to eat.

Who acts: man, men, it, Spirit, year · What happens: ask, shake, tell, not be, give, cause · To what, where: men, heads, man, matter, help, sorrow · Speech: someone speaks here

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 (man, men, it, Spirit), 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	But	but	CCONJ	_	8 shook	cc
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 men	det
3	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 shook	nsubj
4	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 asked	obj
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 asked	nsubj
6	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 men	acl:relcl
7	only	only	ADV	_	8 shook	advmod
8	shook	shake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 heads	nmod:poss
10	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 shook	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 told	cc
12	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 shook	conj
13	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 told	iobj
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 matter	nsubj
15	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 matter	cop
16	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	18 matter	advmod
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 matter	det
18	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 told	ccomp
19	in	in	ADP	_	20 which	case
20	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	23 give	obl
21	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 give	nsubj
22	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	23 give	aux
23	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	18 matter	parataxis
24	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	25 help	det
25	help	help	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 give	obj
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	32 caused	punct
27	for	for	SCONJ	_	32 caused	mark
28	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	30 sorrow	det:predet
29	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	30 sorrow	det
30	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 caused	nsubj:pass
31	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	32 caused	aux:pass
32	caused	cause	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	23 give	advcl
33	by	by	ADP	_	35 Spirit	case
34	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	35 Spirit	det
35	Spirit	Spirit	PROPN	Number=Sing	32 caused	obl
36	of	of	ADP	_	38 Mountain	case
37	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	38 Mountain	det
38	Mountain	Mountain	PROPN	Number=Sing	35 Spirit	nmod
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 whom	punct
40	to	to	ADP	_	41 whom	case
41	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	32 caused	obl
42	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	43 year	det
43	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 bound	nsubj
44	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	46 bound	nsubj
45	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	46 bound	cop
46	bound	bound	ADJ	Degree=Pos	41 whom	acl:relcl
47	to	to	PART	_	48 furnish	mark
48	furnish	furnish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	46 bound	xcomp
49	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	50 maiden	det
50	maiden	maiden	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 furnish	obj
51	for	for	SCONJ	_	54 eat	mark
52	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	54 eat	nsubj
53	to	to	PART	_	54 eat	mark
54	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	48 furnish	advcl
55	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 shook	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	man		the men			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent whom=Recipient
2	shake	past	the men	huts's heads				vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient
3	tell speech: assert	past	the men not said here		man			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient
4	not is a	past	it	a matter				tree rules
5	give	could	man	any help		a matter		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent help=Theme
6	cause	past · passive	the Spirit of the Mountain	all sorrow				vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition subject=Patient
7	is	past	every year				bound property	tree rules
8	furnish	to-infinitive	every year not said here	a maiden				vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent maiden=Recipient
9	eat	to-infinitive	man					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/187/