The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Field of Serpents, sentence 121
But it did not remain invisible; for often, even in our own times, it may be seen during the silent winter nights leaping and prancing, shaking its fiery mane and shooting beams of golden light athwart the northern sky.
Who acts: task, silent winter nights, shaking · What happens: not remain, see, leap, prance, shake, athwart · To what, where: task, fiery mane, northern sky, golden light
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Field of Serpents. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (task, silent winter nights, shaking), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 5 remain | cc |
| 2 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 remain | nsubj |
| 3 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 remain | aux |
| 4 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 remain | advmod |
| 5 | remain | remain | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 6 | invisible | invisible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 remain | xcomp |
| 7 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 9 often | punct |
| 8 | for | for | ADP | _ | 9 often | case |
| 9 | often | often | ADV | _ | 5 remain | advmod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 times | punct |
| 11 | even | even | ADV | _ | 15 times | advmod |
| 12 | in | in | ADP | _ | 15 times | case |
| 13 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 times | nmod:poss |
| 14 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 times | amod |
| 15 | times | time | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 remain | obl:unmarked |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 seen | punct |
| 17 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 seen | nsubj:pass |
| 18 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 20 seen | aux |
| 19 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 20 seen | aux:pass |
| 20 | seen | see | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 remain | conj |
| 21 | during | during | ADP | _ | 25 nights | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 nights | det |
| 23 | silent | silent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 nights | amod |
| 24 | winter | winter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 nights | compound |
| 25 | nights | night | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 seen | obl |
| 26 | leaping | leap | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 25 nights | acl |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 prancing | cc |
| 28 | prancing | prance | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 26 leaping | conj |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 shaking | punct |
| 30 | shaking | shake | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 40 athwart | csubj |
| 31 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 33 mane | nmod:poss |
| 32 | fiery | fiery | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 mane | amod |
| 33 | mane | mane | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 shaking | obj |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 beams | cc |
| 35 | shooting | shooting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 beams | compound |
| 36 | beams | beam | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 mane | conj |
| 37 | of | of | ADP | _ | 39 light | case |
| 38 | golden | golden | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 light | amod |
| 39 | light | light | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 beams | nmod |
| 40 | athwart | athwart | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 leaping | conj |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 sky | det |
| 42 | northern | northern | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 sky | amod |
| 43 | sky | sky | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 athwart | obj |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 remain | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not remain | past · do-support | task | time | invisible, often property | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||
| 2 | see | may · passive | task | night | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | leap | gerund | the silent winter nights not said here | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | prance | gerund | the silent winter nights not said here | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | shake | gerund | task's fiery mane and shooting beams of golden light | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent mane=Patient | |||||
| 6 | athwart | past | shaking | the northern sky | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | beam | golden light | nom beam «communication transitive»: of=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/pg66819/24/121/