The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 6, sentence 2
Perhaps I am very slow and very stupid, but if you will allow me to hang a weight on that fine tail of yours, to hold it down, I challenge you to as long a race as you care to run.”
Who acts: I, you · What happens: be, allow, hang, hold down, challenge, care · To what, where: me, weight, fine tail, you
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you), 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 | _ | 5 slow | advmod |
| 2 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 5 slow | nsubj |
| 3 | am | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 slow | cop |
| 4 | very | very | ADV | _ | 5 slow | advmod |
| 5 | slow | slow | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 stupid | cc |
| 7 | very | very | ADV | _ | 8 stupid | advmod |
| 8 | stupid | stupid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 slow | conj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 allow | punct |
| 10 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 14 allow | cc |
| 11 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 14 allow | mark |
| 12 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 14 allow | nsubj |
| 13 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 14 allow | aux |
| 14 | allow | allow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 slow | parataxis |
| 15 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 14 allow | iobj |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 hang | mark |
| 17 | hang | hang | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 14 allow | xcomp |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 19 weight | det |
| 19 | weight | weight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 hang | obj |
| 20 | on | on | ADP | _ | 23 tail | case |
| 21 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 23 tail | det |
| 22 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 tail | amod |
| 23 | tail | tail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 hang | obl |
| 24 | of | of | ADP | _ | 25 yours | case |
| 25 | yours | your | PRON | Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 tail | nmod |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 hold | punct |
| 27 | to | to | PART | _ | 28 hold | mark |
| 28 | hold | hold | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 hang | conj |
| 29 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 hold | obj |
| 30 | down | down | ADP | _ | 28 hold | compound:prt |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 challenge | punct |
| 32 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 33 challenge | nsubj |
| 33 | challenge | challenge | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 allow | conj |
| 34 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 33 challenge | obj |
| 35 | to | to | PART | _ | 37 long | mark |
| 36 | as | as | ADV | _ | 37 long | advmod |
| 37 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 33 challenge | advmod |
| 38 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 39 race | det |
| 39 | race | race | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 long | nsubj |
| 40 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 42 care | mark |
| 41 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 42 care | nsubj |
| 42 | care | care | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 33 challenge | advcl |
| 43 | to | to | PART | _ | 44 run | mark |
| 44 | run | run | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 42 care | xcomp |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 slow | punct |
| 46 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 slow | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | I | perhaps, slow property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | be | I not said here | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | allow a condition, not said to happen | future | you | me | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer i=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 4 | hang not said to happen | to-infinitive | you not said here | a weight | that fine tail of yours | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent weight=Theme on tail=Destination | |||
| 5 | hold down | to-infinitive | you not said here | weight | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | ||||
| 6 | challenge | present | I | you | long property | tree rules | |||
| 7 | care | present | you | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 8 | run | to-infinitive | you not said here | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg65965/6/2/