The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Caldron, sentence 138
He waited not for the plough’s answer, but struck it with his hammer and broke it into a thousand fragments; then he threw the fragments back into the magic caldron and closed the door of the furnace.
Who acts: Smith · What happens: not wait, strike, break, throw back, close, answer · To what, where: answer, thousand fragments, fragments, magic caldron, door, plough
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Caldron. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Smith), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 waited | nsubj |
| 2 | waited | wait | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 2 waited | advmod |
| 4 | for | for | ADP | _ | 8 answer | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 plough | det |
| 6 | plough | plough | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 answer | nmod:poss |
| 7 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 6 plough | case |
| 8 | answer | answer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 waited | obl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 struck | punct |
| 10 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 11 struck | cc |
| 11 | struck | strike | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 waited | conj |
| 12 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 struck | obj |
| 13 | with | with | ADP | _ | 15 hammer | case |
| 14 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 hammer | nmod:poss |
| 15 | hammer | hammer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 struck | obl |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 broke | cc |
| 17 | broke | break | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 struck | conj |
| 18 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 broke | obj |
| 19 | into | into | ADP | _ | 22 fragments | case |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 thousand | det |
| 21 | thousand | thousand | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 22 fragments | nummod |
| 22 | fragments | fragment | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 broke | obl |
| 23 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 26 threw | punct |
| 24 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 26 threw | advmod |
| 25 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 threw | nsubj |
| 26 | threw | throw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 waited | parataxis |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 fragments | det |
| 28 | fragments | fragment | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 threw | obj |
| 29 | back | back | ADV | _ | 26 threw | advmod |
| 30 | into | into | ADP | _ | 33 caldron | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 caldron | det |
| 32 | magic | magic | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 caldron | amod |
| 33 | caldron | caldron | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 threw | obl |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 closed | cc |
| 35 | closed | close | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 threw | conj |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 door | det |
| 37 | door | door | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 closed | obj |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 40 furnace | case |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 furnace | det |
| 40 | furnace | furnace | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 door | nmod |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 waited | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not wait | past | Smith | for the plough's answer | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | strike | past | Smith not said here | answer | with Smith's hammer | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with hammer=Instrument | |||
| 3 | break | past | Smith not said here | answer | into thousand fragments result | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent it=Patient into fragment=Result | |||
| 4 | throw back | past | Smith | the fragments | then | into the magic caldron result | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer fragment=Theme into caldron=Result | ||
| 5 | close | past | Smith not said here | the door of the furnace | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent door=Patient | ||||
| 6 | answer | the plough | nom answer «communication transitive»: poss=patient |
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 Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 66819 (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/pg66819/10/138/