The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Great Pike, sentence 88
Dashing swiftly upward the fish sought to seize the eagle with his spear-like teeth; he caught the tip of her right wing, he drew it into the water and with might and main strove to pull the giant bird into the depths.
Who acts: Dashing, hero · What happens: dash, seek, seize, catch, draw, strive · To what, where: eagle, tip, water, giant bird, depths
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 (Dashing, hero), 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 | Dashing | dash | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 6 sought | csubj |
| 2 | swiftly | swiftly | ADV | _ | 1 Dashing | advmod |
| 3 | upward | upward | ADP | _ | 5 fish | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 fish | det |
| 5 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Dashing | obl |
| 6 | sought | seek | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 seize | mark |
| 8 | seize | seize | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 sought | xcomp |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 eagle | det |
| 10 | eagle | eagle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 seize | obj |
| 11 | with | with | ADP | _ | 16 teeth | case |
| 12 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 teeth | nmod:poss |
| 13 | spear | spear | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 like | compound |
| 14 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 13 spear | punct |
| 15 | like | like | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 teeth | amod |
| 16 | teeth | tooth | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 eagle | nmod |
| 17 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 19 caught | punct |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 caught | nsubj |
| 19 | caught | catch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 sought | conj |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 tip | det |
| 21 | tip | tip | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 caught | obj |
| 22 | of | of | ADP | _ | 25 wing | case |
| 23 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 wing | nmod:poss |
| 24 | right | right | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 wing | amod |
| 25 | wing | wing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 tip | nmod |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 drew | punct |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 drew | nsubj |
| 28 | drew | draw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 sought | parataxis |
| 29 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 drew | obj |
| 30 | into | into | ADP | _ | 32 water | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 water | det |
| 32 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 drew | obl |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 strove | cc |
| 34 | with | with | ADP | _ | 35 might | case |
| 35 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 38 strove | parataxis |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 main | cc |
| 37 | main | main | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 might | conj |
| 38 | strove | strive | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 drew | conj |
| 39 | to | to | PART | _ | 40 pull | mark |
| 40 | pull | pull | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 38 strove | xcomp |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 bird | det |
| 42 | giant | giant | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 bird | amod |
| 43 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 pull | obj |
| 44 | into | into | ADP | _ | 46 depths | case |
| 45 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 46 depths | det |
| 46 | depths | depth | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 pull | obl |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 sought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | dash | gerund | upward the fish; swiftly property | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | seek | past | Dashing | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | seize not said to happen | to-infinitive | Dashing not said here | the eagle | with hero's like teeth | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eagle=Theme | |||
| 4 | catch | past | hero | the tip of eagle's right wing | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tip=Theme | ||||
| 5 | draw | past | hero | tip | into the water result | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent it=Patient into water=Result | |||
| 6 | strive | past | hero not said here | tree rules | |||||
| 7 | pull | to-infinitive | hero not said here | the giant bird | the depths | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: agent=Agent bird=Result |
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/pg66819/25/88/