The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 16, sentence 33

Perhaps it was because he didn’t know how to look for food, but it did seem to him that there was nothing eatable about, although he went from one bank to the other; dived down to the bed of the river, and nosed among the refuse there, but all to no purpose.

Who acts: worm, it, nothing, Sin · What happens: not be, look, seem, be, go, dive down · To what, where: Sin, all, one bank, bed, refuse

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 (worm, it, nothing, 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	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	_	8 know	advmod
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 know	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 know	cop
4	because	because	SCONJ	_	8 know	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 know	nsubj
6	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 know	aux
7	n’t	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 know	advmod
8	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	11 look	advmod
10	to	to	PART	_	11 look	mark
11	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 know	conj
12	for	for	ADP	_	13 food	case
13	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 look	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 seem	punct
15	but	but	CCONJ	_	18 seem	cc
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 seem	nsubj
17	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 seem	aux
18	seem	seem	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	25 eatable	advcl
19	to	to	ADP	_	20 him	case
20	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 seem	obl
21	that	that	SCONJ	_	23 was	mark
22	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	23 was	expl
23	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	25 eatable	cop
24	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	25 eatable	nsubj
25	eatable	eatable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 know	conj
26	about	about	ADV	_	25 eatable	advmod
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 went	punct
28	although	although	SCONJ	_	30 went	mark
29	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 went	nsubj
30	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	25 eatable	conj
31	from	from	ADP	_	33 bank	case
32	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	33 bank	nummod
33	bank	bank	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 went	obl
34	to	to	ADP	_	36 other	case
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 other	det
36	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 went	obl
37	;	;	PUNCT	_	38 dived	punct
38	dived	dive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 went	conj
39	down	down	ADV	_	38 dived	advmod
40	to	to	ADP	_	42 bed	case
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 bed	det
42	bed	bed	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 dived	obl
43	of	of	ADP	_	45 river	case
44	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	45 river	det
45	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 bed	nmod
46	,	,	PUNCT	_	48 nosed	punct
47	and	and	CCONJ	_	48 nosed	cc
48	nosed	nose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	38 dived	conj
49	among	among	ADP	_	51 refuse	case
50	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	51 refuse	det
51	refuse	refuse	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 nosed	obl
52	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	48 nosed	advmod
53	,	,	PUNCT	_	55 all	punct
54	but	but	CCONJ	_	55 all	cc
55	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	30 went	obl
56	to	to	ADP	_	58 purpose	case
57	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	58 purpose	det
58	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 all	nmod
59	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 know	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	not is	past · do-support	worm				Sin nsubj; know, perhaps property	tree rules
2	look	to-infinitive	worm not said here				for food	vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for food=Theme
3	seem	past · do-support	it		Sin			vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme
4	is	past	nothing				about, eatable property	tree rules
5	go	past	Sin	all to no purpose		one bank	to the other	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme from bank=Initial_Location to other=Destination
6	dive down	past	Sin not said here			the bed of the river	down property	vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to bed=Location
7	nose	participle	Sin not said here			the refuse; there		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme among refuse=Trajectory

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/pg65965/16/33/

🌲 The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 16, sentence 33

The tree

Pragmatics

The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 16, sentence 33