The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 8, sentence 27
Speckle-neck told him what had happened to them, and without a word the Mouse-king began to gnaw at the strings which held his friend.
Who acts: Speckle neck, Mouse king, strings · What happens: tell, happen, begin, gnaw, hold · To what, where: friend, net · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Speckle neck, Mouse king, strings), 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 | Speckle | speckle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 neck | compound |
| 2 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 1 Speckle | punct |
| 3 | neck | neck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 told | nsubj |
| 4 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 told | iobj |
| 6 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 8 happened | nsubj |
| 7 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 happened | aux |
| 8 | happened | happen | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 4 told | ccomp |
| 9 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 them | case |
| 10 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 happened | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 began | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 began | cc |
| 13 | without | without | ADP | _ | 15 word | case |
| 14 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 word | det |
| 15 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 began | obl |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 king | det |
| 17 | Mouse | Mouse | PROPN | Number=Sing | 19 king | compound |
| 18 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 17 Mouse | punct |
| 19 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 began | nsubj |
| 20 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 told | conj |
| 21 | to | to | PART | _ | 22 gnaw | mark |
| 22 | gnaw | gnaw | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 20 began | xcomp |
| 23 | at | at | ADP | _ | 25 strings | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 strings | det |
| 25 | strings | string | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 gnaw | obl |
| 26 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 27 held | nsubj |
| 27 | held | hold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 strings | acl:relcl |
| 28 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 29 friend | nmod:poss |
| 29 | friend | friend | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 held | obj |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | Speckle neck | friend | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | happen | past · perfect | net | what nsubj | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | begin | past | the Mouse king | without a word | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 4 | gnaw | to-infinitive | the Mouse king not said here | at the strings | vn chew-39.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at string=Patient | ||||
| 5 | hold | past | the strings | friend's friend | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent friend=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/pg65965/8/27/