The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 16, sentence 30

It took him a little while to get used to his tail and fins, as he still wanted to strike out with his hands and feet, but by degrees he became used to them, and then he swam swiftly with the current.

Who acts: It, Sin · What happens: take, use, want, strike out, become, swim · To what, where: Sin, degrees

This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, Sin), 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 took	nsubj
2	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 took	obj
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 while	det
5	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 while	amod
6	while	while	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 took	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	9 used	mark
8	get	get	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 used	aux:pass
9	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 while	acl
10	to	to	ADP	_	12 tail	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 tail	nmod:poss
12	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 used	obl
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 fins	cc
14	fins	fin	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 tail	conj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 wanted	punct
16	as	as	SCONJ	_	19 wanted	mark
17	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 wanted	nsubj
18	still	still	ADV	_	19 wanted	advmod
19	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 took	conj
20	to	to	PART	_	21 strike	mark
21	strike	strike	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 wanted	xcomp
22	out	out	ADP	_	21 strike	compound:prt
23	with	with	ADP	_	25 hands	case
24	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	25 hands	nmod:poss
25	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 strike	obl
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 feet	cc
27	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 hands	conj
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 became	punct
29	but	but	CCONJ	_	33 became	cc
30	by	by	ADP	_	31 degrees	case
31	degrees	degree	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 became	obl
32	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 became	nsubj
33	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 took	conj
34	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	33 became	xcomp
35	to	to	ADP	_	36 them	case
36	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	34 used	obl
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 swam	punct
38	and	and	CCONJ	_	41 swam	cc
39	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	41 swam	advmod
40	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 swam	nsubj
41	swam	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 took	conj
42	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	_	41 swam	advmod
43	with	with	ADP	_	45 current	case
44	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	45 current	det
45	current	current	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 swam	obl
46	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 took	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	take	past	It	Sin	while		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination
2	use	to-infinitive · passive				to Sin's tail and fins	vn eat-39.1 «NP V»
3	want	past	Sin		still		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
4	strike out not said to happen	to-infinitive	Sin not said here			with Sin's hands and feet	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with hand=Theme
5	become	past	Sin			by degrees	tree rules
6	use	participle	Sin not said here	degrees = degree			vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	swim	past	Sin		then	with the current; swiftly property	vn swarm-47.5.1-1 «PP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with current=Theme

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/pg65965/16/30/

🌲 The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 16, sentence 30

The tree

Pragmatics

The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 16, sentence 30