The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 25, sentence 16
Once upon a time, so very long ago that even the great-grandfathers of our great-grandmothers had not been born, there lived in the city of Kwen-lu a little Chinese boy named Pei-Hang.
What happens: not bear, live, name · To what, where: great grandfathers, city, little Chinese boy
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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 | Once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 27 lived | advmod |
| 2 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 4 time | case |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 time | det |
| 4 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Once | obl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 ago | punct |
| 6 | so | so | ADV | _ | 9 ago | advmod |
| 7 | very | very | ADV | _ | 8 long | advmod |
| 8 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 9 ago | advmod |
| 9 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 27 lived | advmod |
| 10 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 24 born | mark |
| 11 | even | even | ADV | _ | 15 grandfathers | advmod |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 grandfathers | det |
| 13 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 grandfathers | amod |
| 14 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 13 great | punct |
| 15 | grandfathers | grandfather | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 born | nsubj:pass |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 20 grandmothers | case |
| 17 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 grandmothers | nmod:poss |
| 18 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 grandmothers | amod |
| 19 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 18 great | punct |
| 20 | grandmothers | grandmother | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 grandfathers | nmod |
| 21 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 born | aux |
| 22 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 24 born | advmod |
| 23 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 24 born | aux:pass |
| 24 | born | bear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 27 lived | advcl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 born | punct |
| 26 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 27 lived | expl |
| 27 | lived | live | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 28 | in | in | ADP | _ | 30 city | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 city | det |
| 30 | city | city | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 lived | obl |
| 31 | of | of | ADP | _ | 32 Kwen | case |
| 32 | Kwen | Kwen | PROPN | Number=Sing | 30 city | appos |
| 33 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 34 lu | punct |
| 34 | lu | lu | X | Foreign=Yes | 32 Kwen | dep |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 38 boy | det |
| 36 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 boy | amod |
| 37 | Chinese | Chinese | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 boy | amod |
| 38 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 lu | obj |
| 39 | named | name | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 38 boy | acl |
| 40 | Pei | Pei | PROPN | Number=Sing | 39 named | xcomp |
| 41 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 42 Hang | punct |
| 42 | Hang | Hang | PROPN | Number=Sing | 40 Pei | nmod:unmarked |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 27 lived | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not bear | past · perfect · passive | the great grandfathers of our great grandmothers | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | |||||
| 2 | live | past | the city; there | ago, once property | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in city=Location | ||||
| 3 | name | participle | a little Chinese boy not said here | Pei Hang xcomp | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: 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/pg65965/25/16/