The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 1, sentence 116
“It is very strange,” said the Emperor, “I’ve never heard this Nightingale and it does seem unusual that I should know about it for the first time from reading books written by travellers.”
Who acts: thing, Emperor, it · What happens: be, say, not hear, seem, know, write · To what, where: Nightingale, reading books · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thing, Emperor, it), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 strange | punct |
| 2 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 strange | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 strange | cop |
| 4 | very | very | ADV | _ | 5 strange | advmod |
| 5 | strange | strange | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 said | ccomp |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 strange | punct |
| 7 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 strange | punct |
| 8 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 Emperor | det |
| 10 | Emperor | Emperor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 said | nsubj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 heard | punct |
| 12 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 16 heard | punct |
| 13 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 16 heard | nsubj |
| 14 | ’ve | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 16 heard | aux |
| 15 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 16 heard | advmod |
| 16 | heard | hear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 8 said | conj |
| 17 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 18 Nightingale | det |
| 18 | Nightingale | Nightingale | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 heard | obj |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 seem | cc |
| 20 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 seem | nsubj |
| 21 | does | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 22 seem | aux |
| 22 | seem | seem | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 heard | conj |
| 23 | unusual | unusual | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 seem | xcomp |
| 24 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 27 know | mark |
| 25 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 27 know | nsubj |
| 26 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 27 know | aux |
| 27 | know | know | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 23 unusual | advcl |
| 28 | about | about | ADP | _ | 29 it | case |
| 29 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 know | obl |
| 30 | for | for | ADP | _ | 33 time | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 time | det |
| 32 | first | first | ADJ | Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 33 time | amod |
| 33 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 know | obl |
| 34 | from | from | ADP | _ | 36 books | case |
| 35 | reading | reading | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 books | compound |
| 36 | books | book | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 time | nmod |
| 37 | written | write | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 36 books | acl |
| 38 | by | by | ADP | _ | 39 travellers | case |
| 39 | travellers | traveller | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 written | obl |
| 40 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 said | punct |
| 41 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is in a quote | present | thing | strange property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | say speech: assert | past | the Emperor | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | not hear in a quote | present · perfect | the Emperor = emperor | this Nightingale | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer nightingale=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | seem in a quote | present · do-support | it | unusual property | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | know in a quote | should | the Emperor = emperor | time | about thing | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer about it=Stimulus | |||
| 6 | write in a quote | participle | reading books not said here | by travellers | vn scribble-25.2-1 «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 Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Project Gutenberg book 65965 (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/pg65965/1/116/