The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 41
But directly they took up their position Virgilius girded them about with a great river, so that they could neither move hand nor foot, then, hailing the emperor, he offered him peace, and asked for his friendship.
Who acts: ears, position, emperor · What happens: take up, gird, move, hail, offer, ask · To what, where: ears, hand, emperor, peace, position
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ears, position, emperor), 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 | _ | 4 took | cc |
| 2 | directly | directly | ADV | _ | 4 took | advmod |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 took | nsubj |
| 4 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | up | up | ADP | _ | 4 took | compound:prt |
| 6 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 position | nmod:poss |
| 7 | position | position | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 girded | nsubj |
| 8 | Virgilius | Virgilius | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 position | appos |
| 9 | girded | gird | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 took | conj |
| 10 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 girded | obj |
| 11 | about | about | ADV | _ | 9 girded | advmod |
| 12 | with | with | ADP | _ | 15 river | case |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 river | det |
| 14 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 river | amod |
| 15 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 girded | obl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 move | punct |
| 17 | so | so | SCONJ | ExtPos=SCONJ | 22 move | mark |
| 18 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 17 so | fixed |
| 19 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 move | nsubj |
| 20 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 22 move | aux |
| 21 | neither | neither | ADV | _ | 22 move | advmod |
| 22 | move | move | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 girded | parataxis |
| 23 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 move | obj |
| 24 | nor | nor | CCONJ | Polarity=Neg | 25 foot | cc |
| 25 | foot | foot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 hand | conj |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 hailing | punct |
| 27 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 29 hailing | advmod |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 hailing | punct |
| 29 | hailing | hail | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 22 move | advcl |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 emperor | det |
| 31 | emperor | emperor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 hailing | obj |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 offered | punct |
| 33 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 offered | nsubj |
| 34 | offered | offer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 took | conj |
| 35 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 offered | iobj |
| 36 | peace | peace | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 offered | obj |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 asked | punct |
| 38 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 asked | cc |
| 39 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 took | conj |
| 40 | for | for | ADP | _ | 42 friendship | case |
| 41 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 friendship | nmod:poss |
| 42 | friendship | friendship | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 asked | obl |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 took | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | take up | past | ears = ear | directly property | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | gird | past | ears's position | ears = ear | with a great river; about property | tree rules | |||
| 3 | move | could | ears = ear | hand nor foot | neither property | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent hand=Theme | |||
| 4 | hail | gerund | ears = ear not said here | the emperor | then | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent emperor=Theme | |||
| 5 | offer | past | emperor | peace | position | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent he=Goal peace=Theme | |||
| 6 | ask speech: ask | past | ears = ear not said here | for emperor's friendship | vn inquire-37.1.2 «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/pg641/43/41/