The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Bridegroom’s Triumph, sentence 37
Before them was the bare ground, sloping gently towards the shore and the smooth gray surface of the little inlet; above them was the cloud-flecked sky, cold and cheerless, without sign of bird or other living creature.
Who acts: three, bare ground · What happens: be, slope, fleck, live, sign · To what, where: bare ground, flecked sky, bird
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Bridegroom’s Triumph. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three, bare ground), 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 | Before | before | SCONJ | _ | 6 ground | mark |
| 2 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 ground | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 ground | cop |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 ground | det |
| 5 | bare | bare | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 ground | amod |
| 6 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 sloping | punct |
| 8 | sloping | slope | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 6 ground | acl |
| 9 | gently | gently | ADV | _ | 8 sloping | advmod |
| 10 | towards | towards | ADP | _ | 12 shore | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 shore | det |
| 12 | shore | shore | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 sloping | obl |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 surface | cc |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 surface | det |
| 15 | smooth | smooth | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 surface | amod |
| 16 | gray | gray | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 surface | amod |
| 17 | surface | surface | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 shore | conj |
| 18 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 inlet | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 inlet | det |
| 20 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 inlet | amod |
| 21 | inlet | inlet | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 surface | nmod |
| 22 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 30 sky | punct |
| 23 | above | above | ADP | _ | 30 sky | case |
| 24 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 sky | nsubj |
| 25 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 sky | cop |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 sky | det |
| 27 | cloud | cloud | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 flecked | compound |
| 28 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 27 cloud | punct |
| 29 | flecked | fleck | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 30 sky | amod |
| 30 | sky | sky | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 ground | parataxis |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 cold | punct |
| 32 | cold | cold | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 sky | amod |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 cheerless | cc |
| 34 | cheerless | cheerless | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 cold | conj |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 sign | punct |
| 36 | without | without | ADP | _ | 37 sign | case |
| 37 | sign | sign | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 sky | conj |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 39 bird | case |
| 39 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 sign | nmod |
| 40 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 43 creature | cc |
| 41 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 creature | amod |
| 42 | living | live | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 43 creature | amod |
| 43 | creature | creature | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 bird | conj |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 ground | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | three | the bare ground | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | slope | gerund | the bare ground not said here | towards the shore and the smooth gray surface of the little inlet; gently property | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | fleck | participle | cloud compound | vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | is | past | three | the flecked sky and sign of bird or other living creature | sign of bird or other living creature conj | tree rules | |||
| 5 | live | gerund | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 6 | sign | bird or other living creature | nom sign «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/pg66819/26/37/