The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 10, sentence 28
“My lord and master,” he whispered, “if it were not absurd for a Grand Vizier, and still more for a stork, to be afraid of ghosts, I should feel quite nervous, for someone, or something close by me, has sighed and moaned quite audibly.”
Who acts: lord, master · What happens: whisper, not be, be, feel, sigh, moan · To what, where: more · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lord, master), 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 | _ | 9 whispered | punct |
| 2 | My | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 lord | nmod:poss |
| 3 | lord | lord | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 whispered | nsubj |
| 4 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 master | cc |
| 5 | master | master | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 lord | conj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 lord | punct |
| 7 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 lord | punct |
| 8 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 whispered | nsubj |
| 9 | whispered | whisper | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 absurd | punct |
| 11 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 16 absurd | punct |
| 12 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 16 absurd | mark |
| 13 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 absurd | nsubj |
| 14 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 absurd | cop |
| 15 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 16 absurd | advmod |
| 16 | absurd | absurd | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 whispered | ccomp |
| 17 | for | for | ADP | _ | 20 Vizier | case |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 Vizier | det |
| 19 | Grand | grand | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 Vizier | amod |
| 20 | Vizier | Vizier | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 absurd | obl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 more | punct |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 more | cc |
| 23 | still | still | ADV | _ | 24 more | advmod |
| 24 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 9 whispered | obj |
| 25 | for | for | ADP | _ | 27 stork | case |
| 26 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 27 stork | det |
| 27 | stork | stork | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 more | obl |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 afraid | punct |
| 29 | to | to | PART | _ | 31 afraid | mark |
| 30 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 31 afraid | cop |
| 31 | afraid | afraid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 whispered | conj |
| 32 | of | of | ADP | _ | 33 ghosts | case |
| 33 | ghosts | ghost | NOUN | Number=Plur | 31 afraid | obl |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 feel | punct |
| 35 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 37 feel | nsubj |
| 36 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 37 feel | aux |
| 37 | feel | feel | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 afraid | parataxis |
| 38 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 39 nervous | advmod |
| 39 | nervous | nervous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 feel | xcomp |
| 40 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 someone | punct |
| 41 | for | for | ADP | _ | 42 someone | case |
| 42 | someone | someone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 37 feel | obl |
| 43 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 something | punct |
| 44 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 45 something | cc |
| 45 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 42 someone | appos |
| 46 | close | close | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 something | amod |
| 47 | by | by | ADP | _ | 48 me | case |
| 48 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 46 close | obl |
| 49 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 51 sighed | punct |
| 50 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 51 sighed | aux |
| 51 | sighed | sigh | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 37 feel | parataxis |
| 52 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 53 moaned | cc |
| 53 | moaned | moan | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 51 sighed | conj |
| 54 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 55 audibly | advmod |
| 55 | audibly | audibly | ADV | _ | 53 moaned | advmod |
| 56 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 whispered | punct |
| 57 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 whispered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | whisper speech: assert | past | My lord and master | more for a stork | Lord nsubj | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent more=Topic | |||
| 2 | not is a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | past | master | for a Grand Vizier; absurd property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | is in a quote | to-infinitive | My lord and master not said here | of ghosts; afraid property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | feel in a quote | should | My lord and master = lord | for someone; nervous property | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus | ||||
| 5 | sigh in a quote | present · perfect | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 6 | moan in a quote | participle | audibly property | vn animal_sounds-38 «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/pg65965/10/28/