The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Great Pike, sentence 45
Suddenly he heard light footsteps behind him, suddenly the darkness was dispelled and the smiling Maid of Beauty laid her hand upon his shoulder.
Who acts: pike, smiling Maid · What happens: hear, dispel, smile, lay · To what, where: light footsteps, darkness, hand, shoulder
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Great Pike. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pike, smiling Maid), 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 | Suddenly | suddenly | ADV | _ | 3 heard | advmod |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 heard | nsubj |
| 3 | heard | hear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | light | light | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 footsteps | amod |
| 5 | footsteps | footstep | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 heard | obj |
| 6 | behind | behind | ADP | _ | 7 him | case |
| 7 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 heard | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 dispelled | punct |
| 9 | suddenly | suddenly | ADV | _ | 13 dispelled | advmod |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 darkness | det |
| 11 | darkness | darkness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 dispelled | nsubj:pass |
| 12 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 dispelled | aux:pass |
| 13 | dispelled | dispel | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 heard | conj |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 laid | cc |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 Maid | det |
| 16 | smiling | smile | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 17 Maid | amod |
| 17 | Maid | Maid | PROPN | Number=Sing | 20 laid | nsubj |
| 18 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 Beauty | case |
| 19 | Beauty | Beauty | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 Maid | nmod |
| 20 | laid | lay | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 dispelled | conj |
| 21 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 hand | nmod:poss |
| 22 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 laid | obj |
| 23 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 25 shoulder | case |
| 24 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 shoulder | nmod:poss |
| 25 | shoulder | shoulder | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 laid | obl |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 heard | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hear | past | pike | light footsteps | behind Mistress; suddenly property | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer footstep=Stimulus | |||
| 2 | dispel | past · passive | the darkness | suddenly property | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient | ||||
| 3 | smile | gerund | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 4 | lay | past | the smiling Maid of Beauty | Maid's hand | pike's shoulder | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hand=Theme upon shoulder=Destination |
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/pg66819/25/45/