The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Maid of the Morning, sentence 17
Her head was bare, save for the long, dark tresses that fell in profusion over her shoulders and dipped their ends into the wavelets that were playing modestly above her bare white ankles.
Who acts: head, long dark tresses, wavelets · What happens: be, save, fall, dip, play · To what, where: profusion, ends, wavelets, bare white ankles
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Maid of the Morning. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (head, long dark tresses, wavelets), 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 | Her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 head | nmod:poss |
| 2 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 bare | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 bare | cop |
| 4 | bare | bare | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 save | punct |
| 6 | save | save | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 bare | xcomp |
| 7 | for | for | ADP | _ | 12 tresses | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 tresses | det |
| 9 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 tresses | amod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 long | punct |
| 11 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 tresses | amod |
| 12 | tresses | tress | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 save | obl |
| 13 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 14 fell | nsubj |
| 14 | fell | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 tresses | acl:relcl |
| 15 | in | in | ADP | _ | 16 profusion | case |
| 16 | profusion | profusion | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 fell | obl |
| 17 | over | over | ADP | _ | 19 shoulders | case |
| 18 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 shoulders | nmod:poss |
| 19 | shoulders | shoulder | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 fell | obl |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 dipped | cc |
| 21 | dipped | dip | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 fell | conj |
| 22 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 ends | nmod:poss |
| 23 | ends | end | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 dipped | obj |
| 24 | into | into | ADP | _ | 26 wavelets | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 wavelets | det |
| 26 | wavelets | wavelet | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 dipped | obl |
| 27 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 29 playing | nsubj |
| 28 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 playing | aux |
| 29 | playing | play | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 26 wavelets | acl:relcl |
| 30 | modestly | modestly | ADV | _ | 29 playing | advmod |
| 31 | above | above | ADP | _ | 35 ankles | case |
| 32 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 35 ankles | nmod:poss |
| 33 | bare | bare | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 ankles | amod |
| 34 | white | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 ankles | amod |
| 35 | ankles | ankle | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 playing | obl |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 bare | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | Midway's head | bare property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | save | infinitive | Midway's head not said here | for the long dark tresses | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent for tress=Source | ||||
| 3 | fall | past | the long dark tresses | profusion | over Midway's shoulders | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in profusion=Location | |||
| 4 | dip | past | the long dark tresses not said here | shoulders's ends | the wavelets | vn funnel-9.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent end=Theme into wavelet=Destination | |||
| 5 | play | past · progressive | the wavelets | Midway's bare white ankles | modestly property | vn performance-26.7-1 «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 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/pg66819/19/17/