The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 11, sentence 30
Among the criers who passed backwards and forwards with samples of several sorts of goods, he was not a little surprised to see one who held in his hand an ivory tube, about a foot in length, and about an inch thick, which he cried at forty purses.
Who acts: criers, crier · What happens: pass, not be, see, hold, be, cry · To what, where: one, hand, forty purses, several sorts, goods
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (criers, crier), 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 | Among | among | ADP | _ | 3 criers | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 criers | det |
| 3 | criers | crier | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 surprised | obl |
| 4 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 5 passed | nsubj |
| 5 | passed | pass | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 criers | acl:relcl |
| 6 | backwards | backwards | ADV | _ | 5 passed | advmod |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 forwards | cc |
| 8 | forwards | forwards | ADV | _ | 6 backwards | conj |
| 9 | with | with | ADP | _ | 10 samples | case |
| 10 | samples | sample | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 passed | obl |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 13 sorts | case |
| 12 | several | several | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 sorts | amod |
| 13 | sorts | sort | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 samples | nmod |
| 14 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 goods | case |
| 15 | goods | goods | NOUN | Number=Ptan | 13 sorts | nmod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 criers | punct |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 surprised | nsubj |
| 18 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 surprised | cop |
| 19 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 22 surprised | advmod |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 little | det |
| 21 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 surprised | obl:unmarked |
| 22 | surprised | surprised | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 23 | to | to | PART | _ | 24 see | mark |
| 24 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 22 surprised | advcl |
| 25 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 24 see | obj |
| 26 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 27 held | nsubj |
| 27 | held | hold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 one | acl:relcl |
| 28 | in | in | ADP | _ | 30 hand | case |
| 29 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 hand | nmod:poss |
| 30 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 held | obl |
| 31 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 33 tube | det |
| 32 | ivory | ivory | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 tube | compound |
| 33 | tube | tube | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 hand | appos |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 foot | punct |
| 35 | about | about | ADV | _ | 37 foot | advmod |
| 36 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 foot | det |
| 37 | foot | foot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 tube | appos |
| 38 | in | in | ADP | _ | 39 length | case |
| 39 | length | length | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 foot | nmod |
| 40 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 thick | punct |
| 41 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 45 thick | cc |
| 42 | about | about | ADP | _ | 44 inch | case |
| 43 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 44 inch | det |
| 44 | inch | inch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 45 thick | obl |
| 45 | thick | thick | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 surprised | conj |
| 46 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 49 cried | punct |
| 47 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 49 cried | obj |
| 48 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 49 cried | nsubj |
| 49 | cried | cry | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 45 thick | conj |
| 50 | at | at | ADP | _ | 52 purses | case |
| 51 | forty | forty | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 52 purses | nummod |
| 52 | purses | purse | NOUN | Number=Plur | 49 cried | obl |
| 53 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 22 surprised | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pass | past | the criers | with samples of several sorts of goods; backwards property | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | not is | past | crier | among the criers; a little obl:unmarked; surprised property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | see | to-infinitive | crier not said here | one | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | hold | past | crier's hand | who nsubj | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=Location | ||||
| 5 | be | crier not said here | about a inch | tree rules | |||||
| 6 | cry speech: express | past | crier | forty purses | which obj | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Topic | |||
| 7 | sample | several sorts of goods | nom sample «cognition transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 8 | sort | goods | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=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 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/pg65965/11/30/