The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 13, sentence 44
The steepness of the rocks formed a strong barrier to men, whether on horseback or on foot, so that the sorceress judged that the prince and his retinue had suddenly retired either into some cavern or some underground place, the abode of genii or fairies.
Who acts: steepness, sorceress · What happens: form, judge, retire · To what, where: strong barrier, men, horseback, prince
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (steepness, sorceress), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 steepness | det |
| 2 | steepness | steepness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 formed | nsubj |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 rocks | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 rocks | det |
| 5 | rocks | rock | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 steepness | nmod |
| 6 | formed | form | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 barrier | det |
| 8 | strong | strong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 barrier | amod |
| 9 | barrier | barrier | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 formed | obj |
| 10 | to | to | ADP | _ | 11 men | case |
| 11 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 formed | obl |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 horseback | punct |
| 13 | whether | whether | SCONJ | _ | 15 horseback | mark |
| 14 | on | on | ADP | _ | 15 horseback | case |
| 15 | horseback | horseback | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 formed | obl |
| 16 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 18 foot | cc |
| 17 | on | on | ADP | _ | 18 foot | case |
| 18 | foot | foot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 horseback | conj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 judged | punct |
| 20 | so | so | SCONJ | ExtPos=SCONJ | 24 judged | mark |
| 21 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 20 so | fixed |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 sorceress | det |
| 23 | sorceress | sorceress | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 judged | nsubj |
| 24 | judged | judge | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 formed | parataxis |
| 25 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 33 retired | mark |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 prince | det |
| 27 | prince | prince | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 retired | nsubj:pass |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 retinue | cc |
| 29 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 retinue | nmod:poss |
| 30 | retinue | retinue | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 prince | conj |
| 31 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 retired | aux |
| 32 | suddenly | suddenly | ADV | _ | 33 retired | advmod |
| 33 | retired | retire | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 24 judged | advcl |
| 34 | either | either | CCONJ | _ | 37 cavern | cc:preconj |
| 35 | into | into | ADP | _ | 37 cavern | case |
| 36 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 37 cavern | det |
| 37 | cavern | cavern | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 retired | obj |
| 38 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 41 place | cc |
| 39 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 41 place | det |
| 40 | underground | underground | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 place | amod |
| 41 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 cavern | conj |
| 42 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 44 abode | punct |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 abode | det |
| 44 | abode | abode | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 place | appos |
| 45 | of | of | ADP | _ | 46 genii | case |
| 46 | genii | genii | NOUN | Number=Plur | 44 abode | nmod |
| 47 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 48 fairies | cc |
| 48 | fairies | fairy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 46 genii | conj |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 formed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | form | past | the steepness of the rocks | a strong barrier | men | horseback or foot | vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent barrier=Theme to man=Recipient | ||
| 2 | judge | past | the sorceress | vn estimate-34.2-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | retire | past · perfect · passive | the prince and Prince's retinue | some cavern or some underground place obj; suddenly property | tree rules |
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/pg65965/13/44/