The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 135
If any escaped the wolves, they were seized by the bears; if any fled from the bears, they were devoured by the wolves.
Who acts: any, bears, wolves · What happens: escape, seize, flee, devour · To what, where: wolves, bears
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Slave Boy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (any, bears, wolves), 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 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 3 escaped | mark |
| 2 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 3 escaped | nsubj |
| 3 | escaped | escape | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 seized | advcl |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 wolves | det |
| 5 | wolves | wolf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 escaped | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 escaped | punct |
| 7 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 seized | nsubj:pass |
| 8 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 seized | aux:pass |
| 9 | seized | seize | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 10 | by | by | ADP | _ | 12 bears | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 bears | det |
| 12 | bears | bear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 seized | obl |
| 13 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 16 fled | punct |
| 14 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 16 fled | mark |
| 15 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 16 fled | det |
| 16 | fled | flee | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 9 seized | conj |
| 17 | from | from | ADP | _ | 19 bears | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 bears | det |
| 19 | bears | bear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 fled | obl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 devoured | punct |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 devoured | nsubj |
| 22 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 devoured | aux:pass |
| 23 | devoured | devour | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 fled | conj |
| 24 | by | by | ADP | _ | 26 wolves | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 wolves | det |
| 26 | wolves | wolf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 devoured | obl |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 seized | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | escape a condition, not said to happen | past | any | the wolves | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme wolf=Initial_Location | ||||
| 2 | seize | past · passive | the bears | wolves = wolf | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme | ||||
| 3 | flee a condition, not said to happen | participle | the bears not said here | the bears | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from bear=Initial_Location | ||||
| 4 | devour | past · passive | the wolves | wolves = wolf | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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/pg66819/29/135/