The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Maid of the Morning, sentence 3
Like an old and skilled seaman, the Minstrel suddenly changed his vessel’s course, veering sharply towards the west in order to pass round the low-lying barrier.
Who acts: Minstrel · What happens: change, veer, pass, lie · To what, where: course, west, lying barrier
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 (Minstrel), 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 | Like | like | ADP | _ | 6 seaman | case |
| 2 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 seaman | det |
| 3 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 seaman | amod |
| 4 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 skilled | cc |
| 5 | skilled | skilled | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 old | conj |
| 6 | seaman | seaman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 changed | obl |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 seaman | punct |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 Minstrel | det |
| 9 | Minstrel | Minstrel | PROPN | Number=Sing | 11 changed | nsubj |
| 10 | suddenly | suddenly | ADV | _ | 11 changed | advmod |
| 11 | changed | change | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 vessel | nmod:poss |
| 13 | vessel | vessel | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 course | nmod:poss |
| 14 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 13 vessel | case |
| 15 | course | course | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 changed | obj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 veering | punct |
| 17 | veering | veer | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 11 changed | advcl |
| 18 | sharply | sharply | ADV | _ | 17 veering | advmod |
| 19 | towards | towards | ADP | _ | 21 west | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 west | det |
| 21 | west | west | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 veering | obl |
| 22 | in | in | ADP | _ | 23 order | case |
| 23 | order | order | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 west | nmod |
| 24 | to | to | PART | _ | 25 pass | mark |
| 25 | pass | pass | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 veering | advcl |
| 26 | round | round | ADP | _ | 31 barrier | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 barrier | det |
| 28 | low | low | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 lying | compound |
| 29 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 28 low | punct |
| 30 | lying | lie | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 31 barrier | amod |
| 31 | barrier | barrier | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 pass | obl |
| 32 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 changed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | change | past | the Minstrel | Minstrel's vessel's course | like a old seaman; suddenly property | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Patient | |||
| 2 | veer | gerund | the Minstrel not said here | the west in order | sharply property | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards west=Location | |||
| 3 | pass | to-infinitive | the Minstrel not said here | the lying barrier | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme round barrier=Initial_Location | ||||
| 4 | lie | gerund | vn assuming_position-50 «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/pg66819/19/3/