The Violet Fairy Book, The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan, sentence 17

The apprentice thought that this seemed the best plan, and that very afternoon went to a meadow outside the town, dug a deep hole, then knelt and whispered to it three times over, ‘The Emperor Trojan has goat’s ears.’

Who acts: apprentice, this, afternoon, Emperor Trojan · What happens: think, seem, go, dig, kneel, whisper · To what, where: best plan, meadow, deep hole, hole, ears · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (apprentice, this, afternoon, Emperor Trojan), 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 apprentice	det
2	apprentice	apprentice	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 thought	nsubj
3	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 seemed	mark
5	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	6 seemed	nsubj
6	seemed	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 thought	ccomp
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 plan	det
8	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	9 plan	amod
9	plan	plan	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 seemed	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 went	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 went	cc
12	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	14 afternoon	det
13	very	very	ADV	_	14 afternoon	advmod
14	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 went	nsubj
15	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 thought	conj
16	to	to	ADP	_	18 meadow	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 meadow	det
18	meadow	meadow	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 went	obl
19	outside	outside	ADP	_	21 town	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 town	det
21	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 went	obl
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 dug	punct
23	dug	dig	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 thought	conj
24	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	26 hole	det
25	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	26 hole	amod
26	hole	hole	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 dug	obj
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 knelt	punct
28	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	29 knelt	advmod
29	knelt	kneel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 dug	parataxis
30	and	and	CCONJ	_	31 whispered	cc
31	whispered	whisper	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	29 knelt	conj
32	to	to	ADP	_	33 it	case
33	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 whispered	obl
34	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	35 times	nummod
35	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 over	obl:unmarked
36	over	over	ADV	_	31 whispered	advmod
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	42 has	punct
38	‘	'	PUNCT	_	42 has	punct
39	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 Trojan	det
40	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	Number=Sing	41 Trojan	compound
41	Trojan	Trojan	PROPN	Number=Sing	42 has	nsubj
42	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	31 whispered	parataxis
43	goat	goat	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 ears	nmod:poss
44	’s	's	PART	_	43 goat	case
45	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	42 has	obj
46	.	.	PUNCT	_	23 dug	punct
47	’	'	PUNCT	_	23 dug	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	past	the apprentice						vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	seem	past	this	the best plan					vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme plan=Attribute
3	go	past	that afternoon			a meadow		outside the town	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to meadow=Initial_Location
4	dig	past	the apprentice not said here	a deep hole					vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent hole=Theme
5	kneel	past					then		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	whisper speech: assert	past			hole			over property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to it=Recipient
7	have	present	the Emperor Trojan	goat's ears					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ear=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.

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