The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 5, sentence 9
They besought the old man to intercede for them, but he answered that he was not her real father, and that he could not order her to obey him, and also that he would not ask her to do anything she did not wish to do.
Who acts: knights, man, Princess · What happens: beseech, intercede, answer, not be, not order, obey · To what, where: old man, real father, Princess, man, anything
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knights, man, Princess), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 besought | nsubj |
| 2 | besought | beseech | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 man | det |
| 4 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 man | amod |
| 5 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 besought | obj |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 intercede | mark |
| 7 | intercede | intercede | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 besought | advcl |
| 8 | for | for | ADP | _ | 9 them | case |
| 9 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 intercede | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 answered | punct |
| 11 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 13 answered | cc |
| 12 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 answered | nsubj |
| 13 | answered | answer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 besought | parataxis |
| 14 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 20 father | mark |
| 15 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 father | nsubj |
| 16 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 father | cop |
| 17 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 20 father | advmod |
| 18 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 father | nmod:poss |
| 19 | real | real | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 father | amod |
| 20 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 answered | advcl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 order | punct |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 order | cc |
| 23 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 27 order | mark |
| 24 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 order | nsubj |
| 25 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 27 order | aux |
| 26 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 27 order | advmod |
| 27 | order | order | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 besought | conj |
| 28 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 order | obj |
| 29 | to | to | PART | _ | 30 obey | mark |
| 30 | obey | obey | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 27 order | xcomp |
| 31 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 obey | obj |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 ask | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 ask | cc |
| 34 | also | also | ADV | _ | 39 ask | advmod |
| 35 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 39 ask | mark |
| 36 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 ask | nsubj |
| 37 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 39 ask | aux |
| 38 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 39 ask | advmod |
| 39 | ask | ask | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 besought | parataxis |
| 40 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 ask | iobj |
| 41 | to | to | PART | _ | 42 do | mark |
| 42 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 39 ask | xcomp |
| 43 | anything | anything | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 42 do | obj |
| 44 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 47 wish | nsubj |
| 45 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 47 wish | aux |
| 46 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 47 wish | advmod |
| 47 | wish | wish | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 43 anything | acl:relcl |
| 48 | to | to | PART | _ | 49 do | mark |
| 49 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 47 wish | xcomp |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 besought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | beseech | past | knights = knight | the old man | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | intercede | to-infinitive | knights = knight not said here | for knights = knight | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | answer speech: assert | past | man | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | not is a | past | man | Princess's real father | Princess nmod:poss | tree rules | |||
| 5 | not order | could | man | Princess | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 6 | obey not said to happen | to-infinitive | man not said here | man | vn abide_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||||
| 7 | not ask speech: ask | would | man | Princess | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 8 | do not said to happen | to-infinitive | man not said here | anything | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality | ||||
| 9 | not wish | past · do-support | Princess | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 10 | do not said to happen | to-infinitive | Princess not said here | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: 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/pg65965/5/9/